The live stranding of a chronically entangled, emaciated humpback in Vancouver, BC this week makes this recently published short review remain pertinent. It is available Open Access at: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jmb/2012/230653/ Journal of Marine Biology Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 230653, 4 pages doi:10.1155/2012/230653 Review Article The Painful Side of Trap and Fixed Net Fisheries: Chronic Entanglement of Large Whales Michael J. Moore and Julie M. van der Hoop Abstract Concern over the well-being of marine mammals at sea has focused on intentional harvests, both in terms of individual welfare and population sustainability. Unintentional mortalities from fishing gear entanglement are primarily seen as a risk to population viability. Additionally, larger whales breaking free of, and subsequently carrying, fixed trap and net gear are subject to a very slow demise, averaging 6 months in the case of the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis). Chronic cases can involve impaired foraging, increased drag, infection, hemorrhage, and severe tissue damage. The individual suffering of these cases appears to be extreme. Thus management measures should go beyond legally mandated conservation measures to include avoidance of such scenarios. Seafood consumers could succeed, where laws have failed, to demand fishing practices that do not kill whales in this manner. The effective absence of such demands would seem to reflect the cryptic nature of these cases to most consumers. -- Michael Moore Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 508 289 3228