Marine animal rescuers operating on Vancouver Island have reported a significant increase in whale entanglements this summer. Paul Cottrell, the marine mammal coordinator at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, stated that his team has been responding to approximately one to two entanglements per week for the past two months, consistent with last year’s figures. Alongside these incidents, the team has conducted several necropsies.
The latest entanglement call occurred last week, marking the third activation of Cottrell’s team in under two weeks. This time, it involved a humpback whale calf and its mother near the south coast of Vancouver Island, entangled in over 100 meters of rope. The team traced the gear back to July 5 when the calf went missing from B.C.’s central coast.
After a seven-hour effort, in collaboration with U.S. counterparts, the team successfully freed the calf, named “Tempest,” from the entanglement. Cottrell expressed the team’s satisfaction in saving the calf and emphasized the importance of rescuing every animal in distress.
Prior to this incident, the team had responded to two entanglement calls within two days. They 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 Alberni Inlet on a subsequent call. Cottrell acknowledged the increasing frequency of entanglements, indicating a concerning trend with no decline in sight.
Jackie Hildering, a researcher and educator at the Marine Education and Research Society (MERS), highlighted the positive impact of conservation efforts on humpback whales, describing it as a “second chance” for the once-threatened species. However, she expressed concerns about the ongoing entanglement issues, noting that 50% of whales she has observed through research showed signs of previous entanglements, suggesting the problem may be more widespread than documented.
Hildering emphasized the need for prevention and education as primary strategies, underscoring the uncertainty surrounding the long-term survival of whales post-disentanglement. She urged for a shift towards proactive measures and public awareness, advocating for initiatives like MERS’ whale safe boating course endorsed by the federal government to mitigate entanglement risks.
The escalating entanglement incidents underscore the critical need for proactive conservation measures to safeguard marine wildlife in British Columbia waters.