Marine mammal rescuers operating on Vancouver Island have reported a busy summer dealing with whale entanglements. Paul Cottrell, the marine mammal coordinator at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, mentioned that his team has responded to an average of one to two entanglements weekly for the past two months, aligning with last year’s figures. They have also conducted several necropsies during this period.
In the most recent incident, the team was called out for the third time in less than two weeks to assist a humpback whale calf and its mother near the south coast of Vancouver Island. The calf was discovered entangled in over 100 meters of rope, which it had been towing since July 5 after going missing from B.C.’s central coast.
The team, in collaboration with U.S. counterparts, spent seven hours freeing the calf, which was a significant success according to Cottrell. Prior to this, they had disentangled a whale named Wiggins for the second time in a year near French Creek and responded to another entanglement in the Alberni Inlet on Vancouver Island’s central coast.
Cottrell noted the increasing frequency of entanglements, attributing it to the rising number of humpbacks in British Columbia’s inshore waters coinciding with fishing gear encounters. While this phenomenon signifies the positive “humpback comeback” story due to conservation efforts, entanglement risks persist.
Jackie Hildering, a researcher and educator at the Marine Education and Research Society (MERS), emphasized the importance of prevention and education in mitigating entanglement incidents. She expressed concerns about the long-term survival rates of disentangled whales and stressed the need for informed actions to safeguard humpbacks.
Hildering recommended taking a whale-safe boating course developed by MERS, endorsed by the federal government, to help prevent humpback entanglements and fatalities, highlighting the necessity of proactive measures beyond reactive rescue efforts.