Marine mammal rescuers operating on Vancouver Island have reported a significant uptick in whale entanglements this summer. Paul Cottrell, who serves as the marine mammal co-ordinator at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, mentioned that his team has been actively responding to one to two entanglements per week over the past two months, consistent with figures from the previous year. They have also conducted several necropsies during this period.
The latest incident occurred last week when a humpback whale calf, along with its mother, was discovered entangled in over 100 meters of rope near the south coast of Vancouver Island. Cottrell’s team managed to trace the gear and determined that the calf had been dragging the rope since July 5, when it was reported missing from the central coast of British Columbia.
The team dedicated seven hours to freeing the calf, collaborating with counterparts from the United States. Cottrell expressed the team’s satisfaction in successfully rescuing the calf, emphasizing the importance of each animal’s well-being.
Prior to this rescue, there were two consecutive entanglement cases within two days. The team spent a day and a half disentangling a whale named Wiggins for the second time in a year near French Creek on the eastern coast of Vancouver Island before rushing to the central Island and the Alberni Inlet for another rescue mission. Cottrell highlighted the increasing frequency of such incidents, with entanglement rates showing no signs of decline.
Jackie Hildering, a researcher and educator at the Marine Education and Research Society (MERS), acknowledged that conservation efforts have contributed to a resurgence in humpback whale populations, which were once on the brink of extinction. However, she expressed concerns that this opportunity for recovery might be wasted.
Hildering stressed the severity of the entanglement issue, noting that half of the whales she has documented in her research exhibited previous entanglement signs, possibly underestimating the actual numbers. She advocated for a shift towards prevention and education as more effective strategies. Hildering emphasized the need for informing the public on how to prevent humpback entanglements and fatalities, recommending participation in MERS’ whale-safe boating course, endorsed by the federal government, to mitigate such incidents.