Marine protected areas benefit wildlife welfare by providing refuges from fishing pressure, allowing natural behaviours and reducing injury and stress from gear encounters.
Marine protected areas provide wildlife welfare benefits that are rarely articulated in conservation terms but are genuinely significant. Fish populations inside no-take reserves are larger, older, and subject to less chronic disturbance from fishing activity. Cetaceans that feed in protected areas experience fewer vessel interactions and gear entanglement incidents. Seabirds that nest on protected islands are free from introduced predator pressure. The cumulative welfare benefit of effective marine protection — across millions of individual animals — is substantial. The challenge is that effective protection requires robust enforcement, which is expensive and politically difficult in international waters where most marine biodiversity is concentrated.