Entanglement of whales in fishing gear occurs globally and where populations are recovering from past exploitation, entanglement frequency is likely to increase. The Western Australian population of humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) is growing rapidly, yet from 1990 to 2010 the number of whales reported entangled in gear from the pot‐based western rock lobster fishery was relatively stable at around one per year. Howe...