Humpback whales recovering from commercial whaling now face entanglement in fishing gear as a primary welfare and mortality threat, with thousands of whales affected globally each year.
An entangled humpback whale faces months of escalating suffering. Ropes wrapped around flippers, mouths, or bodies cause deep lacerations that become infected. The drag of attached gear causes exhaustion and prevents normal feeding. Heavily entangled whales lose body condition progressively, their blubber reserves depleting as they cannot hunt effectively. Ropes cutting through tissue cause chronic pain at every movement. Documented cases show whales surviving months of entanglement with severe injuries before rescue or death. Disentanglement — when possible — is immediately transformative: freed whales swim away with visible relief. The preventability of entanglement through ropeless gear technology makes the ongoing scale of this welfare problem particularly difficult to accept.