As well as whalers' harpoons, whales must navigate the dangers of ship strikes, entanglements in shipping nets and other ocean apparatus, disorientating man-made ocean noises, habitat destruction, resource exploitation, climate change and pollution.
"The nets out the back are no different to any other nets but then you come out in the middle and you have to react to the slope.
Locals sat on their front stoops mending fishing nets and cooking rice.
Rarely lost for words, the CNN presenter and former Daily Mirror editor revealed he suffered a broken rib in the nets stunt, which was condemned as dangerous and unnecessary by former New Zealand international Richard Hadlee.
We buy little nets and buckets for rock pooling and the children have a surfing lesson.
I've grown up with no safety nets around me".
Between runs, children come to sit and watch the fishermen mend their nets and talk about great adventures out on the waters.
Perhaps grouse could be "harvested with nets as a food source which would achieve the objective of not allowing people to enjoy themselves shooting," he said drily.
Jack Conte, one-half of the indie duo Pomplamoose, is confronting this paradox the hard way in the wake of his recent post on Medium in which he lays bare the nuts, bolts, nets and grosses of his group's 24-show American tour.
A friend who had been in Brisbane told me how she had watched Matt Prior practising in the nets to the noisy accompaniment of insults and expletives from a group of boors.
The upshot of those hours spent in the nets has been a return to form.
