Fisheries and Oceans Canada crews quickly got to work after receiving a report of a humpback whale entangled in fishing gear near Texada Island.
The five-year-old humpback whale Tutu was seen entangled off Texada Island on Sept. 4, and fishery officers from Campbell River were deployed.
The crews first attached a satellite tag on the gear, then after eight hours, they were able to remove over 300 feet of fishing line.
Friday afternoon, MERS (the Marine Education & Research Society) posted on its Facebook page “Whale is now directly in McNeill Bay near the ferry dock. The 4 orange floats you are seeing have been attached to the gear the whale is entangled in to slow down/exhaust the whale so that the team can approach and cut free the gear.”
Earlier on Friday the DFO issued a statement, “In dark and windy weather the team attached a satellite tag to the remaining gear,” DFO said in a statement on Friday.
“They will remove the remaining gear today.”
“This has been a big effort by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) marine mammal rescue, Campbell River fishery officers and Straitwatch.”
Comox Valley Wildlife Sightings says one of its community members reported the entangled whale to DFO.
“Not only do our CVWS chats provide opportunities for our page followers to see these amazing beings from land-based viewing locations, but we are also watching over them,” CVWS said in a Facebook post on Sept. 4.
“Today one of our amazing chat members has reported a possible humpback entanglement using the pinned dfo contact info provided in all our chats.”
In 2024, another humpback whale named Smoke was freed from fishing gear. At the time, Paul Cottrell, marine mammal coordinator with DFO, said removing fishing gear is a complex task.
“So it’s a real difficult, difficult situation when you have an entangled 30 tonne humpback or any large whale to try to get in and remove gear from, you have to be very patient,” Cottrell said in July 2024. “And that’s why it often takes, over five, over six, over 10 hours, to be able to start and then end, to remove the gear.”
If the whale is awake, Cottrell said there are a number of cues to watch out for in order to ensure the safety of the team and whale.
“You actually go by behavioural cues. So if it trumpets, wheezing, high-pitched, you know that animal is agitated, it’s going to react,” Cottrell said at the time. “So through experience, you monitor the behaviour as you’re working with the animal, and you have to be able to disengage at any time, and we did that a number of times with this animal.”
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On Friday, DFO says that debris in the ocean is a big problem for marine life.
“The public can help prevent entanglements by cutting packing material, banding, rope and other looped material before disposing of it, and by not disposing of these materials in the marine environment,” DFO says.
If you see a possible occurrence of a whale being harassed or disturbed, or instance or collisions with whales or entanglements, DFO asks that you contact the Fisheries and Ocean’s Observe, Record, Report/Marine Mammal Incident Hotline at 1-800-465-4336 or by email at: DFO.ORR-ONS.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca.