Coral reef bleaching from warming oceans causes welfare harms to the coral animals themselves and to the thousands of species that depend on reef ecosystems for habitat and food.
Coral reef welfare presents a philosophical question: do coral animals themselves have welfare-relevant inner states, given their limited nervous systems? This remains genuinely uncertain. But the welfare of the thousands of fish, crustacean, mollusc and echinoderm species that depend on reef habitats is less uncertain — these animals' access to food, shelter and breeding habitat depends on reef health. As reefs bleach and die, the fish populations that used them decline, and the welfare of those fish deteriorates as food availability and habitat shelter decrease. Climate action is simultaneously the most impactful coral reef conservation intervention and a welfare intervention for the millions of animals dependent on reef ecosystems.