Humpback whale songs represent one of the most complex cultural transmission systems documented outside humans, with welfare implications for individuals in acoustically polluted oceans.
Humpback whales are culturally sophisticated animals whose songs carry information about individual identity, reproductive state, and population membership. Acoustic pollution that masks or disrupts song communication is a welfare harm affecting social functioning. Whales in high-traffic shipping lanes experience chronic acoustic stress comparable to humans living near airports. Shipping lane modifications, reduced speeds, and noise emission standards for vessels all reduce the welfare burden of ocean noise on humpbacks and other cetaceans.