Humpback whales have made remarkable recoveries from whaling, but entanglement in fishing gear remains a major ongoing welfare and conservation challenge causing chronic suffering and death.
Entangled whales suffer prolonged, severe welfare harm. Ropes wrapped around flippers, mouths, or bodies cause tissue damage, infection, and restrict normal swimming and feeding. An entangled whale may drag hundreds of kilograms of fishing gear through the water for months, causing progressive exhaustion, malnutrition, and sepsis. Disentanglement operations by trained teams can remove gear, but the procedure itself requires approaching and working around a distressed, powerful animal — dangerous for responders. Ropeless fishing technology offers a structural solution to entanglement risk, but adoption requires regulatory mandates and economic incentives. The welfare case for ropeless fishing is compelling — each entanglement avoided eliminates months of potential suffering for an individual whale.