Responding to live strandings of whales and dolphins requires rapid welfare assessment and difficult decisions about intervention, refloating, and euthanasia.
Live-stranded cetaceans face acute welfare crises that require rapid professional response. Out of water, cetaceans overheat rapidly, sustain pressure injuries from their body weight, and experience profound psychological distress. Refloating apparently healthy animals has a reasonable success rate for some species but very poor rates for others, particularly when the cause of stranding is internal disease. The hardest welfare decision — euthanasia — is also often the most welfare-positive, but is delayed by public pressure to attempt rescue and by logistical and training barriers. Evidence-based stranding protocols that prioritise rapid welfare assessment, immediate cooling and pain relief, and honest prognosis evaluation save time and reduce suffering compared to automatic refloating attempts.