North Atlantic right whales face an existential entanglement crisis, and the suffering of individual whales is documented over years before death.
The documentation of individual right whale suffering over months to years is among the most thoroughly documented wildlife welfare catastrophes. Names like Punctuation, who dragged entangling rope for over a year before dying, represent not just population statistics but witnessed individual suffering. Faster adoption of ropeless gear technology would prevent these multi-year drowning deaths.