Marine mammal rescuers on Vancouver Island are reporting a busy summer dealing with whale entanglements. Paul Cottrell, a marine mammal coordinator with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, mentioned that his team has responded to an average of one to two entanglements per week over the past two months, consistent with last year’s numbers. They have also conducted several necropsies during this period.
The most recent 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. The calf had been towing the rope since July 5, after it went missing from B.C.’s central coast.
Cottrell’s team, in collaboration with U.S. counterparts, spent seven hours freeing the calf from the entanglement. This was the third activation of his team in less than two weeks. Prior to this, they had disentangled a whale named Wiggins for the second time in a year near French Creek and responded to another call in the Alberni Inlet on the central Island.
Despite successful rescue efforts, Cottrell expressed concern about the increasing frequency of entanglements, attributing it to the rising presence of humpback whales in British Columbia’s inshore waters overlapping with fishing gear.
Jackie Hildering, a researcher and educator with the Marine Education and Research Society (MERS), highlighted the positive impact of conservation efforts on humpback whales’ recovery from near-extinction. However, she emphasized the urgent need for prevention and education to address the persistent entanglement issue, with approximately 50% of whales in her research showing previous signs of entanglement.
Hildering stressed that disentanglements, while garnering attention, are not a long-term solution. She advocated for proactive measures such as prevention strategies and educational initiatives, urging boaters to take a whale-safe boating course developed by MERS with government endorsement to reduce humpback entanglements and fatalities.