Photo: Fisheries and Oceans Canada
A humpback whale was so entangled in fishing gear, ropes and buoys that it took four days for a Fisheries Department crew to free it off the British Columbia coast. It was clear the animal had been trapped for months, said Paul Cottrell, a marine mammal coordinator with the department.“Its mouth was closed with two wraps around the head, and there were ropes through the mouth, around the body,” he said. “This poor animal was showing evidence of being exhausted and hadn’t been feeding for quite a while.” Janie Wray, CEO of North Coast Cetacean Society, said northern B.C. has historically been a “hot spot” for humpbacks, where researchers sometimes meet 30 to 40 such whales foraging. She said more resources need to be added to saving these whales, and that means “other people need to be trained and know how to disentangle a whale.”
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