Entanglement in fishing gear is the leading cause of large whale injury and death worldwide, causing prolonged suffering that can last months before animals die or are rescued.
The welfare impact of entanglement is severe and prolonged in ways rarely captured in mortality statistics. A large whale entangled in lobster trap lines may struggle against the gear for weeks or months, developing constriction injuries as the lines cut through blubber and into muscle, while simultaneously being unable to dive normally to feed. The suffering is invisible to most humans because it occurs offshore and underwater, but the evidence from rescued animals — the wounds, the emaciation, the elevated stress hormones — tells a clear story. Effective welfare action requires moving beyond rescue (which reaches only a tiny fraction of affected animals) to preventing entanglement through gear modification and regulatory reform.