Entanglement in fishing gear, plastic, and other human-made materials kills and injures enormous numbers of wild animals globally. Understanding the problem drives better prevention and response.
Entanglement causes prolonged, severe suffering. Fishing line and nets cut into skin and flesh as animals move, causing progressive lacerations and sometimes amputations of flippers or flukes. Tightly wrapped material restricts blood flow, causing tissue death. Entangled animals cannot feed normally and become progressively malnourished. The suffering of a whale dragging hundreds of metres of fishing gear for months before dying represents one of the most severe welfare harms caused by human activity on any individual animal basis.