Intertidal animals including crabs, barnacles, mussels, and starfish face extreme physical stress from tidal cycles and are additionally threatened by human activity and warming oceans.
Intertidal animal welfare involves both natural stressors that animals are adapted to and human-caused harms that exceed adaptive capacity. Intertidal animals have evolved remarkable physiological adaptations to tidal stress — osmotic regulation, thermal tolerance, and desiccation resistance. However, recreational trampling kills through direct crushing and removes animals from attachment points, exposing them to lethal desiccation. Oil spills coat and suffocate intertidal communities. Warming causes thermal stress beyond adaptive capacity. The welfare of individual intertidal animals is relevant regardless of their sentience uncertainty given the numbers affected in accessible coastal zones. Visitor education and low-impact tourism practices directly reduce welfare harm.