One interesting but worrying possibility is that aquatic noise reduction seems robustly positive if and only if the population effects are small, which seems to hold if and only if non-welfare-interested environmentalists and conservationists should have little interest in it. So, we might not want to count on them as we find out more about the population effects, or we’ll abandon the intervention while they continue to pursue it. Still, many conservationists/environmentalists could be interested in wild animal welfare for its own sake, so even if the population effects turn out to be small.
Looks promising!
One interesting but worrying possibility is that aquatic noise reduction seems robustly positive if and only if the population effects are small, which seems to hold if and only if non-welfare-interested environmentalists and conservationists should have little interest in it. So, we might not want to count on them as we find out more about the population effects, or we’ll abandon the intervention while they continue to pursue it. Still, many conservationists/environmentalists could be interested in wild animal welfare for its own sake, so even if the population effects turn out to be small.