Marine mammal stranding events cause significant welfare impacts requiring rapid, skilled response to minimize suffering and, where possible, facilitate successful rehabilitation and release.
Cetacean stranding response represents acute welfare triage in complex circumstances. Stranded animals may be experiencing severe underlying disease, extreme physical stress from terrestrial conditions, and potentially ongoing pain from the cause of stranding. The welfare decision framework must include honest assessment of survival probability and current suffering level. For large whales with poor prognosis, rapid euthanasia is often the most welfare-appropriate response despite the difficulty of achieving humane euthanasia for multi-tonne animals. For smaller cetaceans with better prognosis, skilled rehabilitation can achieve successful outcomes. Prevention through reducing acoustic pollution and entanglement addresses root causes.