Humpback whales face increasing entanglement in fishing gear that causes severe welfare harm through injury, exhaustion, and prolonged death.
Humpback whale entanglement represents ongoing, severe welfare harm to one of the most charismatic recovered whale populations. Entangled whales drag fishing lines and pots across ocean surfaces for months, the lines progressively cutting through blubber and potentially amputating flippers. The physical and physiological exhaustion is extreme. Whale welfare requires not just disentanglement response — which reaches only a small fraction of cases — but fundamental changes to fishing gear through ropeless technology and dynamic ocean management.