Entanglement & Ship Strikes

Orcas are entangled less often than humpbacks or grey whales, but derelict gear, crab pot lines and lost net remain a real hazard along the coast. A single entanglement in a population of seventy-four is a measurable loss.

Ship strikes are rarer still and harder to document, since a struck animal usually sinks. Necropsies occasionally reveal blunt trauma consistent with a vessel collision in whales that were assumed to have died of other causes.

Both threats respond well to unglamorous work: gear recovery programmes, better marking standards, and keeping large vessels out of known foraging areas during peak season.