To the editor
I’m still mourning your death and will feel this heaviness for quite some time. Vessels injure and strike down your family and crabbing gear entangles you to your death. I’m so sorry your death was human-caused; this should have never been a possibility.
Your struggle brought our communities together and inspired us to set our differences aside to try and save you. With the dividedness we currently face, you gave me hope that we can heal and grow.
While we failed to save you, we can still help whale-kind by making sure they cannot become entangled or stuck in the first place.
We should have acted when the 2024 West Coast Whale Entanglement summary was released by NOAA Fisheries. They reported 36 entanglements from commercial fishing gear in 2024, resulting in at least two deaths. The highest reported in our region since 2018.
These devastating events happen all too often, but in your memory, we must come together and refocus our shared energy on making the ocean safer. We can harness compassion to find a solution to stop killing whales with our seafood harvesting habits.
You need us to act now. You need us to demand increased funding to remove abandoned gear and fishing trap ropes from the water and establish better programs for genuinely certified whale-safe products. You need us to embrace the difficult truth that consumers play a direct role and should limit, or better yet, eliminate our seafood intake.
I’m heartbroken we failed you. We owe it to you to finally make the entire ocean a place where all can swim freely and safely.
— Leslie Skrdlant/Tangent
