Hundreds of thousands of dolphins die annually as bycatch in commercial fisheries, representing one of the most significant human-caused threats to wild cetacean populations.
Dolphin entanglement deaths represent enormous welfare harm: the drowning of air-breathing mammals in nets is acutely terrifying and painful. Animals that survive entanglement often suffer severe fin and body lacerations from monofilament line that can cause prolonged suffering, infection, and delayed death. The scale of the problem — hundreds of thousands of animals annually — dwarfs most other forms of wildlife harm. Effective solutions exist: real-time tracking of fishing fleets, mandatory acoustic deterrents, and time-area closures during peak dolphin presence. The barriers are political and economic, not technical.