Humpback whale populations have recovered dramatically since commercial whaling ended. Their story offers welfare lessons about recovery and ongoing threats.
The humpback whale recovery is a welfare success story at population level, but individual animals continue to experience significant welfare harms. Entanglement in crab trap and gill net gear causes acute and prolonged suffering — entangled whales may drag gear for months, causing wounds, infection, and exhaustion before either escaping or dying. Vessel strikes cause both immediate trauma and prolonged suffering from injuries that may take weeks to cause death. The recovery of whale populations has not been accompanied by equivalent reduction in these ongoing threats. Disentanglement teams that rescue entangled whales provide direct welfare benefit, but prevention through fishing gear modifications is the sustainable long-term solution.