{"id":796419,"date":"2026-07-12T23:41:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T23:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796419\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T23:41:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T23:41:14","slug":"humpback-whale-swims-free-after-days-long-entanglement-in-fishing-gear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796419\/","title":{"rendered":"Humpback whale swims free after days-long entanglement in fishing gear"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A humpback whale named Pop Tart spent nearly one week entangled in fishing gear north of the Canada-U.S. border, according to the Pacific Whale Watch Association.<\/p>\n<p>SEATTLE \u2014 A Salish Sea humpback whale is now swimming freely after spending nearly a week tangled in fishing gear near the Canada-U.S. border, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pacificwhalewatchassociation.com\/media\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pacific Whale Watch Association (PWWA)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The whale, named Pop Tart due to her love for popping out of the water as a calf, was spotted on July 2 by crew members on an Orca Spirit Adventure tour near Victoria, British Columbia. PWWA <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/4vqaQB8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">said\u00a0<\/a>the crew members saw a long rope and a buoy wrapped around her pectoral flipper.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEntanglement in fishing gear is one of the greatest threats to humpback whales not just in the Salish Sea, but globally,\u201d said Erin Gless, PWWA executive director. \u201cPop Tart\u2019s positive outcome was the direct result of collaboration between PWWA whale watchers and DFO\u2019s trained marine mammal responders. Vessels with the boater education groups Straitwatch (BC) and Soundwatch (WA) also helped search for and track Pop Tart over the past several days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other vessels in the area kept watch over Pop Tart until a team from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) arrived. They could not remove the fishing gear from Pop Tart, but confirmed she was tangled and that the rope was nearly 100 feet long.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Over the following days, Pop Tart was spotted by vessels who kept watch and attempted to disentangle her. On Monday, July 6, DFO crews were able to attach a tracking buoy to her.<\/p>\n<p>When she was spotted the next day, the fishing gear was no longer wrapped around her flipper.<\/p>\n<p>Vessels from the DFO, Victoria-based Eagle Wing Tours, Puget Sound Express in Port Angeles, Outer Island Excursions in Anacortes, Coastal Explorations, Victoria-based Prince of Whales, SpringTide Tours and Orca Spirit Adventures all assisted with watching over Pop Tart during the incident.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>            <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"photo__main\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fe91c87a-d59b-4e8d-a2c2-661ac354a987_1140x641.jpg\"  alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A humpback whale named Pop Tart spent nearly one week entangled in fishing gear north of the Canada-U.S.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-796419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}