Harbor seals in rehabilitation and marine facility contexts have specific welfare needs from diet quality, social management, and water environment provision.
Harbor seal welfare in rehabilitation requires matching welfare interventions to the goal of each individual animal: release candidates need minimum human contact to preserve wild behaviour, while animals deemed non-releasable may benefit from social housing and enrichment that would compromise release viability. The welfare-positive rehabilitation philosophy centres on the animal best interest at each stage: intensive feeding when needed for survival, progressive independence as condition improves, and honest assessment of release viability without sentimentality that prolongs captivity unnecessarily. For permanently captive harbor seals in marine facilities, welfare depends on complex social group management, large varied pools, and enrichment programmes that engage natural foraging and exploration behaviour.