Beneath the Surface: Marine Mammal Welfare in a Challenging World
OceanCare is about to release a new report Beneath the Surface: Marine Mammal Welfare in a Challenging World which explores how the threats that affect marine mammal species and populations also have direct consequences for the lives and welfare of individual animals. The report focuses primarily on cetaceans – baleen and toothed whales – and pinnipeds, including seals, sea lions and walruses. It also includes references to other marine mammals, including sirenians (manatees and dugongs), marine otters, sea otters, and polar bears.
Of all the animals that live in the Ocean, marine mammals hold a special place in many people’s hearts and minds. Their high intelligence, complex social lives and many similarities with humans trigger a strong sense of connection and empathy with them. For many people, this also brings concern for the quality of life these animals experience and how they are feeling. This is where animal welfare comes in.
Conservation has traditionally focused on species and populations: how many animals there are and whether populations are stable or declining, as well as whether they are likely to survive into the future. But numbers alone do not tell us how individual animals are experiencing their lives. Considering welfare brings the focus to the individual animal with their intrinsic value and asks a different, complementary question: how well are these animals actually doing?
“Animal welfare is often viewed as distinctly different from conservation. In reality, understanding and assessing the welfare of individual animals can provide important insights into the effects of threats and help inform meaningful conservation action as well as helping with public engagement,” says Laetitia Nunny, Senior Science Officer at OceanCare, specialising in wild animal welfare.
The chapters in Beneath the Surface: Marine Mammal Welfare in a Challenging World have been prepared by scientific experts in the topic covered and all chapters have been peer reviewed and will be published successively.
Beneath the Surface – An introduction to marine mammal welfare
This first chapter introduces the science of animal welfare and explores how marine mammal welfare can be assessed. Read here
Authors: Rebecca M. Boys, Laetitia Nunny and Karen A. Stockin.
Disturbed – How marine mammal welfare is impacted by the presence of people
This chapter examines how disturbance caused by the close presence of humans on land and at sea can affect marine mammal welfare. Read here
Authors: Dan Jarvis, Sue Sayer, Louisa Hawkes, Kim Raum-Suryan, Lina Challita and Angela Ziltener.
Ashore – How marine mammal welfare is impacted when ashore
This chapter investigates how the experiences of individual cetaceans and pinnipeds are impacted when they are ashore which for pinnipeds is part of their normal life cycle, but for cetaceans is highly abnormal and can be caused by many different factors. Read here
Authors: Rebecca M. Boys, Guido Pietroluongo, Natalie Arrow and Dan Jarvis.
More chapters from Beneath the Surface: Marine Mammal Welfare in a Challenging World will be published soon, exploring a range of other threats and circumstances that can affect marine mammal welfare.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to all the chapter authors who dedicated their time and shared their expertise to make this report a reality.
Thank you to everyone who provided photographs and other images for inclusion. Particular thanks to Margaux Dodds at Marine Connection, Matteo Poggio and Jared Towers for the chapter cover photos.
Thank you very much to all our reviewers: James Barnett, Rebecca M. Boys, Philippa Brakes, Carlos Bravo, Peter Corkeron, Rob Deaville, Sonja Eisfeld-Pierantonio, Nicolas Entrup, James Kerry, Fabienne McLellan, Madison Miketa, Laetitia Nunny, Guido Pietroluongo, Valérie Pimentel, Fabian Ritter, Agathe Serres, Alick Simmons, Mark P. Simmonds, Sandra Striegel, Lindy Weilgart, Rosie Williams and Alexandros Xydias.