The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration documented 95 large whales entangled in fishing gear in the United States in 2024, including 17 off the coast of Massachusetts. That’s an increase from 2023 and higher than the historical average, according to a new federal report.
“Entanglements are not decreasing, at least not in our region here on the East Coast,” said Scott Landry, the director of the Marine Animal Entanglement Response Program at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown. “The trend is not going away.”
Entanglements in fishing gear can injure and kill whales, and are among the top threats to North Atlantic right whales, which are in danger of extinction. There are only about 370 individual members of the species left in the world.
Most of the whales documented in the report — 77 of the 95 — were humpbacks. Landry said many whale watching tours target these charismatic whales, which can often be found closer to shore than other species. This means more people are likely to see and report humpback entanglements.
The NOAA list of entangled animals also included four North Atlantic right whales. But that low number may be misleading, said Heather Pettis, a senior scientist at the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life. The report does not include six entangled right whales spotted in Canada in 2024, or others that may have died or freed themselves before being counted.
“The report is really great in highlighting big picture context for whales with entangled gear,” Pettis said. But whales can suffer the effects of an entanglement long after they’ve been freed.
“Even in the absence of attached gear, entanglement events can impact growth, it can impact reproduction, feeding, ultimately survival down the road,” she said.
Whales unable to free themselves from ropes, nets or fishing line can stay entangled for days, months or even years. Entanglements can cause severe injuries that can lead to death from infection, starvation, strangulation or drowning.
NOAA’s Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan has required some fishermen to use gear, like weaker ropes, that lower the risk of entanglement. And while some fishermen are testing ropeless gear, it is not mandatory nor widely used.
The NOAA report comes amid the Trump administration’s proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which would limit the reach of those laws. The Trump Administration has also proposed cutting all funding for the Marine Mammal Commission, a federal agency dedicated to the protection of whales, dolphins, seals and other marine mammals.
“It’s an interesting and trying time,” said Pettis, who is also the the executive administrator for the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium. “It’s not the first time that we’ve faced challenges on the federal funding landscape,” she added, but “this may be a little bit more extreme than we’ve seen.”
“We’re all really concerned and alarmed,” said Landry. “North Atlantic right whales were hunted to the brink of extinction, so it’s taken us a long time to claw back their numbers to where they are today. Anything that jeopardizes that is very nerve wracking.”
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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