Trainees in ‘right place at the right time’ help free entangled whale off Canada
A team of trainees off the western coast of Canada ended up in the “right place at the right time” to help free an entangled whale. A video shows the rescue effort and the hundreds of feet of rope removed from the animal.
Boaters with the Prince of Whales Whale Watching company spotted a humpback whale tangled in some rope near Nanaimo and immediately alerted Canadian officials, Fisheries and Oceans Canada said in an Oct. 24 Facebook post.
The report came while the marine mammal rescue team was out on the water “conducting training with new fishery officers at our Pacific Biological Station,” officials said. The team responded to the alert and brought “the trainees along for real-world experience.”
A video shows the humpback whale and the rope caught on its tail fin.
The rescue team approached the whale and attached “a satellite tag” to the dragging gear, the department said. The extra weight “helped dislodge over 450 feet of rope, freeing the whale.”
Humpback whale populations are “increasing in abundance throughout much of its range but faces threats from entanglement in fishing gear, vessel strikes, vessel-based harassment, and underwater noise,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“Humpback whales can become entangled by many different gear types,” NOAA said. “Once entangled, if they are able to move the gear, the whale may drag and swim with attached gear for long distances, ultimately resulting in fatigue, compromised feeding ability, or severe injury, which may lead to reduced reproductive success or even death.”
Canadian officials thanked the whale watching group “for reporting the entanglement and staying with the whale until help arrived.”
Nanaimo is a city on Vancouver Island, across the strait from Vancouver and near the Canada-United States border.
