Humpback whales have recovered significantly from historical whaling. However, entanglement in fishing gear remains a major source of welfare harm and mortality for this iconic species.
Humpback whale entanglement causes prolonged, severe suffering. Ropes and nets cutting into whales cause lacerations that can reach bone. Dragging heavy gear impairs swimming and feeding, causing progressive weakness and starvation over months. Entangled whales may be observed repeatedly breaching and slapping the water in apparent attempts to shed gear. Disentanglement operations by trained teams provide welfare relief to individual whales but are dangerous for responders and not always successful. The systemic solution — ropeless fishing gear using acoustic-triggered pop-up buoys — would eliminate entanglement risk entirely but requires economic transition support for fishing communities. Meanwhile, speed restriction in whale migration corridors and routing vessels around aggregations reduce ship strike mortality.