OAKLAND— NOAA Fisheries has released preliminary data showing that 34 whales have been confirmed entangled in fishing gear off the U.S. West Coast in 2024. That number is higher than for any other year since 2018.

Shortly after the latest numbers were released, another entangled humpback whale was spotted by whale watchers near Orange County, California. Rescuers have not yet been able to remove the line from the whale’s body but continue to track the humpback.

“It’s completely unacceptable that so many whales are still becoming entangled after a decade of attention to this awful problem. State and federal agencies have to do more to protect whales," said Catherine Kilduff, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Pop-up fishing gear, which already exists and has performed well in tests, is a win-win solution to the tragic series of entanglements these animals are suffering from, and agencies should authorize its use immediately. Whales trying to survive while wrapped up in fishing rope face an absolutely brutal challenge, and entanglements can cause fin amputations, wounds, and painfully slow deaths.”

Most of the entangled whales were humpbacks, with 29 confirmed reports, along with reports of four gray whales and one fin whale. The Service has only been able to trace 17 of the entanglements to a specific fishery, and most of those – 12 – were from the commercial Dungeness crab fishery.

The bulk of the entanglements were reported in California, with 23, but they occurred all along the Pacific coast. Five were in Washington, four in Oregon, and one each reported in Canada and Mexico, with both whales carrying U.S. gear.

In 2021 the Center proposed that the Service require all fisheries that use pot gear to convert to “pop-up” gear within the next five years. Most trap and pot fisheries use static vertical lines that stay in the water for long periods of time, which is how entanglements occur. Pop-up traps use lift bags or buoys on coiled ropes triggered by remote or time-release sensors to float the traps to the surface, eliminating static entangling lines.

The opening of the California commercial Dungeness crab fishing season is currently delayed because of the high presence of whales in fishing areas. Pop-up gear has been tested by the fishery and received positive feedback, but has not yet been approved by the state or the Service.

After a previous drastic increase in entanglements, the Center sued the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in 2017 for failing to prevent the Dungeness crab fishery from entangling and killing endangered whales and sea turtles. The Center, CDFW, and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Association reached an agreement in 2019, creating a comprehensive approach to preventing whale entanglements.

Each entanglement of a humpback whale, blue whale, fin whale or leatherback sea turtle in a state-managed fishery violates the federal Endangered Species Act.