Marine mammal rescuers in 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 been responding to an average of one to two entanglements per week over the past two months, similar to last year’s figures, along with conducting several necropsies.
The most recent entanglement involved a humpback whale calf and its mother near the south coast of Vancouver Island. The calf was ensnared in over 100 meters of rope, which it had been dragging since it went missing on July 5 from B.C.’s central coast. Cottrell’s team, collaborating with U.S. counterparts, spent seven hours freeing the calf.
Prior to this incident, the team had responded to two entanglement calls within two days. They successfully disentangled 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 operation.
Cottrell expressed concern over the increasing frequency of entanglements with no signs of a decline in rates. He attributed this trend to the rise in humpbacks in British Columbia’s inshore waters, coinciding with the presence of fishing gear in these areas.
Jackie Hildering, a researcher and educator at the Marine Education and Research Society (MERS), highlighted the conservation efforts that have led to a “second chance” for humpback whales, which were previously hunted to near extinction. Despite this progress, she emphasized the urgency of addressing entanglement issues, noting that 50% of whales she has observed showed signs of previous entanglements.
Hildering stressed the importance of prevention and education as more effective tools than reactive disentanglement efforts. She advocated for increased awareness and education on preventing humpback entanglements, recommending the MERS-developed whale safe boating course supported by the federal government as a proactive measure.