Entanglement

In the twenty years between 1983 and 2003, there were 49 reported entanglements in BC waters, including eight humpbacks (three in 2002 alone), nine Dall’s porpoise, eight harbour porpoise, seven grey whales, four Pacific white-sided dolphins, two pilot whales and one Northern right-whale dolphin. This represents an average of 2.4 entanglements per year with a maximum of eight - occurring in 1990. Entanglements appear to be somewhat uncommon in BC waters. However, on the East Coast entanglements and systematic rescues are a regular occurrence.

In 1978, Dr. Jon Lien, a scientist at Memorial University in Newfoundland was studying a species of seabird and teaching animal behaviour, when he received a call from an inshore fisherman reporting a humpback whale that had become entangled three months previously and was still trailing fishing gear and unable to feed. Dr. Lien was able to free the whale, and news of the success spread quickly among fishermen. He subsequently established the Entrapment Assistance Programme responding to entanglements along 17,000 km of coastline. During the peak of the cod fishery the program responded to an average of 150 entangled humpbacks a year, and released ten other species of cetaceans from fishing gear. The success of the project is due in large measure to the nature of the relationship the project has developed with fishermen, and has not only saved whales, but has also limited the destruction to nets.

Further south on the east coast, a large network of organizations has been established to disentangle whales. In the Bay of Fundy, the Whale Disentanglement Network was established to disentangle endangered North Atlantic right whales but also responds to humpback and other entangled species. The network is a co-operative program with a number of groups including the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, New Brunswick Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, East Coast Ecosystems, New England Aquarium, Center for Coastal Studies, local whale watch companies, interested residents and the Grand Manan Whale & Seabird Research Station. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Environment Canada Habitat Stewardship Program provided funds for equipment purchased to establish a full cache of disentanglement equipment located at Westport, Brier Island, Nova Scotia, with additional first responder kits on Grand Manan and Campobello Island - two islands near the entrance to the Bay of Fundy on the Canada/US border. Further south in U.S. waters, the Centre for Coastal Studies at Provincetown Massachusetts works cooperatively with the US Coast Guard, NMFS, the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and others to locate and disentangle whales that have been caught in fishing gear. In particular, the Centre for Coastal Studies has become a world leader in whale disentanglement, developing specialized equipment and techniques to ensure disentanglements are as safe as possible for both whales and humans.

On the west coast, the extent of the problem has not been well studied. Our vast and unpopulated coastline means that many entanglements go unreported. If the reporting rate on the east coast is representative of the reporting rate in BC then It is almost certain that there are as many as 10 times more entanglements occurring in B.C. than there are reported.

The best course of action for the public that finds an entangled whale is to contact authorities and to monitor the position and condition of the whale so that the experts will be able to locate the distressed animal. A west coast network of organizations capable of responding safely to entanglements is developing: disentanglement gear caches exist at the Pacific Biological Station in- Nanaimo at the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre’s Cetacean Research Lab and Strawberry Isle Research has a gear cache in Tofino.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

- In BC, to report an entanglement for any marine mammal or sea turtle, call the Coast Guard on VHF Channel 16 or the DFO Observe, Record, Report Line 1-800-465-4336, which operates 24 hours a day.
- Remain with the animal. If a disentanglement effort is to be successful we must know where the animal is.
- Do not attempt to disentangle the whale yourself.

Additional Information
http://www.coastalstudies.org/what-we-do/whale-rescue/rescue-techniques.htm
http://www.acsonline.org/conference/whales2000/speakers/lien.html
http://ewradio.org/program.aspx?ProgramID=1801