Animal welfare science has traditionally focused on the welfare of domestic or captive animals living under human care. However, there is increasing recognition of the potential for human activities to also impact on the welfare of wild animals, including marine mammals. Furthermore, negative animal welfare consequences can negatively impact conservation outcomes that may drive the human interaction in the first instance. For example, New Zealand has an international reputation not only for its high incidence of whale strandings, but also its degree of human intervention at such events. Despite costly, logistically challenging efforts to 'rescue' live whales, there remains a lack of empirical data around the welfare of such individuals. Indeed, matters of animal welfare, including the impacts of refloatation and the fate of ‘rescued’ individuals remain largely undetermined, even internationally. Conservation Welfare reflects the relatively recent application of the animal welfare ethic to consider the effects of conservation activities on free-living wild animals.