Sperm whales are the largest toothed predators on Earth and have exceptional diving physiology, but face welfare threats from ship strikes, entanglement, acoustic disturbance from sonar, and ingested plastic.
Sperm whale welfare threats operate at multiple scales simultaneously. Individual animals struck by ships suffer traumatic injury and death. Those subjected to sonar pulses from military exercises experience acute acoustic trauma and may strand in panic — mass strandings caused by sonar exposure have been documented across the Mediterranean and North Atlantic. Ingested plastic causes gut impaction, reduced feeding capacity, and potentially toxicity. The cultural transmission of dialect patterns within family groups means that the death of an experienced matriarch is a welfare loss for the entire group's knowledge base and social coherence. International regulation of shipping routes, sonar exercise areas, and plastic pollution addresses multiple overlapping welfare threats.