Wild orca populations face multiple converging threats that affect both individual welfare and population viability across different ecotypes.
Wild orca welfare is inseparable from the ecological health of their prey base and habitat. Southern Resident orcas present a case study in welfare mediated entirely through ecosystem degradation — animals starving in waters where their prey species have collapsed from human-driven factors including overfishing and dam construction. Individual welfare is experienced as chronic hunger, nutritional stress, and infant mortality. The welfare interventions required are upstream and systemic: salmon recovery through dam removal and fisheries management, shipping noise reduction through speed restrictions, and PCB remediation — none of which directly address orcas but all of which affect their welfare profoundly.