Derelict Fishing Gear Hurts Whales and Boaters
A beached, approximately two-year old humpback whale made the weekend of November 15 an eventful one for San Marin Beach near Yachats—an Oregon Coast dot-on-the-map town tucked between Wakonda Beach (of Ken Kesey literature) and Thor’s Well, an awe-inspiring collapsed sea cave. The stranded whale, a 26’, 9-10 ton male was entangled in crab fishing line according to initial social media posts from the Discovering Depoe Bay Oregon Facebook Page that documented the dramatic saga and corroborated by NOAA Fisheries. Thousands followed online and later via official media outlets like Oregon Public Broadcasting over the weekend as laypeople and marine mammal experts alike attempted to free the whale, aiming for high tide windows. Trenches were dug. Hydrating saline administered. Ultimately, after about two days of struggle, a difficult decision was made to euthanize the whale on Monday, November 17, 2025.
Photo courtesy of Discovering Depoe Bay Oregon. Photo by Samantha Liessey.- Photo courtesy of Discovering Depoe Bay Oregon. Photo by Devon Northrop
Photo courtesy of Discovering Depoe Bay Oregon.
What killed this whale? NOAA Fisheries has since reported their official findings and preliminary necropsy results. The organization attributes the gear the humpback was entangle in as belonging to the 2023-2024 Oregon commercial Dungeness crab fishery. Note that this would be derelict crab gear set over a year ago and abandoned. It’s important to note that the cause of death has yet to be officially attributed to the crabbing gear—it is possible that the whale was in distress before becoming entangled—and the final verdict will be made in the coming weeks. Regardless, it’s safe to conclude the gear entanglement did not help the whale’s health. The last post from NOAA Fisheries at the time of this writing was on November 19:
“A large team from multiple organizations convened on Tuesday, November 18 to conduct a necropsy on the young humpback whale that stranded over the weekend… The team collected many samples, which will undergo analysis at the Oregon State University Veterinary Diagnostic Lab. They noted some lesions. The whale had no stomach contents, and was in fair body condition at the time of necropsy.
The team is grateful to a local contractor that provided lighting and a small excavator. They are also thankful to the local community and bystanders for understanding the logistical and complex challenges that come with large whales onshore.”
Oregon State University will release more details of the necropsy and the sample analysis as they become available. According to NOAA’s National Report on Large Whale Entanglements Confirmed in the United States in 2024, there were 95 confirmed large whale entanglement cases nationally in 2024. This represents an increase from the 64 large whale entanglement incidents in 2023 and is above the average annual incidents over the previous 17 years that is 71.4.
Derelict Fishing Gear Affects Boaters Too
As a boater who has cruised on those wild Oregon Coast waters, the constant concern of wrapping the prop on crab pots is right up there with foul weather and hitting a log. One readily forgives and understands the presence of active crab pots during the fishing season, but the fact remains that there are generations of old crab pots out there forgotten and abandoned that now represent real hazards.
I doubt this is a uniquely Pacific Northwest phenomenon either with boaters and whales around the world dodging derelict gear of their regions’ respective fisheries. To put it bluntly, very little effort is generally spent addressing old gear at all—so it languishes, forever, until a boater or whale comes along and something bad happens. Companies like EdgeTech and Desert Star Systems have even developed “ropeless” commercial lobster pots aimed for the fisheries of Maine and other places but this technology has yet to be implemented beyond the experimental stage.
Fortunately, the laissez faire attitudes about abandoned fishing gear is starting to change. I reported on legislation in Oregon passed in 2023/2024 in the now defunct Fishermen’s News magazine (RIP). Specifically, the Dungeness crab fishery was affected by new whale entanglement reduction measures on August 8, 2023.
Among the various new restrictive laws passed was one very innovative approach that caught my attention. A new rule allows retention of crab from all derelict crab pots if harvested by a licensed crabber. Basically, finders keepers is now law. Empty an abandoned pot, keep the crab and save a whale? Sounds like a win.
“For those already holding a crab permit, and during an open season, (this rule) incentivizes removal of derelict gear by allowing them to keep crab from recovered gear,” Dennehy [Michell Dennehy, Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife] explained to me. “This was already allowed in most situations, but these changes make the allowance universal (during open season).”
Personally, I do like the “finders keepers” law where derelict crab pots with expired tags can be removed and then raided by other crabbers. If we can get financial incentives like that cooking, then the crabbing fleet becomes an ally as they eagerly take care of this offending gear for an easy buck. The (regulation) stick can work, but the (incentive) carrot makes friends.
Perhaps a broader, bounty-style program for derelict fishing gear could harness the carrot approach to clearing out the hazards. The commercial fishermen, if the price was right, would probably become the most effective allies in this effort one could possibly hope for. Clever solutions like these will be the most effective in getting old gear out of the sea to the benefit of whales and boaters alike. At the end of the day, we all want the same thing: happy whales, safe boaters, and prosperous crab fishermen. Aligning the incentives is the way to get there.
Large whale strandings like the recent one in Oregon seem to be on the increase, averaging from 40 to over 100 each year on the US West Coast alone. If you include other marine mammals like porpoises, sea lions, and seals the numbers are in the thousands. While gear entanglement contributes to this problem the exact reason for this increase is not fully understood. The hope is that we can learn from these strandings including the young humpback on San Marin beach and work toward solutions to the benefit of whales and humans alike.
