Freshwater dolphins in Asian and South American rivers face acute welfare crises from habitat degradation, fishing gear entanglement, and the consequences of being apex predators in heavily modified waterways.
River dolphin welfare intersects conservation crisis at every point: species with fewer than 100 individuals cannot sustain even low rates of individual welfare harm without population-level consequences. Ganges river dolphins entangled in gill nets experience drowning — a prolonged, distressing death — with unknown but likely significant frequency. Amazon boto harpooned for use as fishing bait die by violence. Electrofishing creates mass disorientation events in which dolphins may be repeatedly stunned and rendered unable to navigate or feed effectively for hours. The welfare harm to each individual river dolphin in these events is severe. These animals also live in the most degraded river ecosystems on Earth: heavily polluted, fragmented by dams, depleted of prey. The welfare and conservation imperatives are identical: protecting river dolphins requires restoring the integrity of the river systems they inhabit.