Concern over the well-being of marine mammals at sea has focused on intentional harvests, both in terms of individual welfare and population sustainability. Unintentional mortalities from fishing gear entanglement are primarily seen as a risk to population viability. Additionally, larger whales breaking free of, and subsequently carrying, fixed trap and net gear are subject to a very slow demise, averaging 6 months in the case of the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis). Chronic cases can involve impaired foraging, increased drag, infection, hemorrhage, and severe tissue damage. The individual suffering of these cases appears to be extreme. Thus management measures should go beyond legally mandated conservation measures to include avoidance of such scenarios. Seafood consumers could succeed, where laws have failed, to demand fishing practices that do not kill whales in this manner. The effective absence of such demands would seem to reflect the cryptic nature of these cases to most consumers. 1. Introduction Current debate [1] within animal welfare includes the concept that living conditions can be incrementally enhanced (Protectionism) versus the belief that such approaches only prolong animal suffering and that there needs to be a paradigm shift whereby animals are no longer owned and used (Abolitionism). Such debate focuses primarily on captive animals, both in the laboratory and on farms. However, there are parallels for wildlife, both terrestrial and marine. A number of factors need to be considered regarding the welfare of wildlife, including the nature of the harm caused, its duration, the numbers of animals affected, and their capacity for suffering [2]. These authors point out that most of the wildlife in the world today are under human influence, and we therefore have an obligation to consider their welfare in addition to that of domesticated animals. We quote Sainsbury et al. [3]: “the use of anticoagulant rodenticides, myxomatosis in rabbits, the poisoning of wildfowl by ingested lead shot, the contamination of seabirds with fuel oil, the effects of shooting, injuries due to collisions with road and vessel traffic and predation by domestic cats all severely compromise the welfare of large numbers of wild animals.” Feral cats provide a particularly poignant counterpoint, between concerns for their welfare, versus their impact on other wildlife such as song birds, and the impacts of trap, neuter, and return programs [4]. With regard to marine mammals, their welfare has been discussed in terms of their maintenance in captivity for
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