Entanglement in fishing gear kills and injures thousands of large whales annually, causing prolonged suffering before death.
Whale entanglement causes some of the most prolonged suffering documented in large wildlife. Whales can drag heavy fishing gear for months, developing severe infections at entanglement sites, exhausting themselves, and slowly weakening until death. The suffering is drawn out and extreme. Ropeless fishing technology that eliminates surface ropes entirely has been developed and is being deployed in some fisheries — its wider adoption would eliminate this source of suffering.