Hundreds of thousands of marine mammals including dolphins, porpoises, and seals are killed as bycatch in fishing nets annually. This represents both a major conservation and welfare crisis.
Marine mammal bycatch entanglement causes distressing, prolonged deaths. Unlike birds or fish, marine mammals breathe air — an entangled dolphin or porpoise drowns consciously, struggling against the net for as long as several minutes. This is a welfare harm at enormous scale, affecting hundreds of thousands of animals annually. Solutions include: acoustic pingers that alert cetaceans to net presence, modified net designs that create escape routes, seasonal fishing closures in critical habitat, and real-time monitoring technology. Consumer choices for fisheries-certified sustainable seafood that includes bycatch standards help create market incentives for improvement.