Ocean plastic pollution causes entanglement, ingestion, and toxic exposure that harm millions of marine animals annually. Reducing plastic waste is a direct animal welfare intervention.
Ocean plastic causes acute suffering at individual animal level and chronic population-level harm to marine wildlife. Entanglement in plastic rings, netting, and rope causes strangulation injuries, limb loss, and drowning in animals including seals, turtles, whales, and seabirds. Ingestion of plastic causes false satiety preventing adequate nutrition, physical gut damage, and toxic chemical exposure from plastic additives. Plastic-related mortality and suffering now affects species at every level of the marine food web. The scale of individual animal suffering caused by plastic pollution is enormous — likely affecting millions of marine vertebrates annually. Individual plastic reduction, advocacy for producer responsibility legislation, and support for ocean cleanup initiatives are all meaningful welfare responses.