{"id":755257,"date":"2026-07-10T19:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T19:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/755257\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T19:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T19:42:09","slug":"beloved-salish-sea-humpback-whale-pop-tart-freed-from-fishing-gear-after-weeklong-tangle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/755257\/","title":{"rendered":"Beloved Salish Sea humpback whale ‘Pop Tart’ freed from fishing gear after weeklong tangle"},"content":{"rendered":"

A beloved Salish Sea humpback whale known as Pop Tart is swimming free after spending nearly a week entangled in fishing gear, thanks to a cross-border effort involving professional whale watchers and Canada’s marine mammal response team.<\/p>\n

The Pacific Whale Watch Association (PWWA) said on Friday that Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) confirmed Pop Tart was no longer entangled after days of coordinated search efforts by whale-watching companies in British Columbia and Washington.<\/p>\n

On July 2, the crew of Victoria-based Orca Spirit Adventures spotted a humpback whale with fishing gear wrapped around a pectoral flipper southwest of Victoria, British Columbia. The whale was identified as Pop Tart.<\/p>\n

According to the PWWA, Pop Tart earned her name because she frequently popped up and breached as a young calf.<\/p>\n

\"Entangled<\/p>\n

Entangled Pop Tart. (Megan MacGregor, Outer Island Excursions)<\/p>\n

After Orca Spirit Adventures reported the issue, DFO dispatched its Marine Mammal Response Team. Whale-watching vessels from Washington and British Columbia kept watch on the whale until responders arrived.<\/p>\n

Although crews were unable to free Pop Tart that first evening, a drone confirmed she was wrapped in more than 30 meters of fishing rope attached to a buoy.<\/p>\n

The search continued over the next several days.<\/p>\n

Pop Tart was not seen on July 3 or July 4, but she resurfaced on July 5 in the Strait of Juan de Fuca near the U.S.-Canada border. Whale-watching vessels tracked her for hours while waiting for DFO, but she disappeared into the fog after a dive.<\/p>\n

On July 6, whale-watching companies intensified the search. Prince of Whales launched a dedicated search vessel with a naturalist aboard, while Orca Spirit Adventures relocated Pop Tart east of Race Rocks Ecological Reserve. Crews maintained visual contact until DFO staff arrived.<\/p>\n

\"Pop<\/p>\n

Pop Tart after being declared free of gear. (Sarah Hunter, Eagle Wing Tours)<\/p>\n

Poor weather limited rescue efforts that afternoon, but DFO attached a tracking buoy to the fishing gear before leaving to help relocate the whale.<\/p>\n

There were no sightings the following day.<\/p>\n

Then, on July 8, a vessel from Victoria-based Eagle Wing Tours found Pop Tart east of Race Rocks. The crew noticed the fishing gear was gone and remained with the whale until DFO arrived. Using a drone, responders confirmed Pop Tart was completely free of the gear.<\/p>\n

The confirmation sparked celebrations among Eagle Wing’s crew and passengers, as well as throughout the PWWA fleet.<\/p>\n

“Entanglement in fishing gear is one of the greatest threats to humpback whales not just in the Salish Sea, but globally,” PWWA Executive Director Erin Gless said in a news release. “Pop Tart’s positive outcome was the result of collaboration between PWWA whale watchers and DFO’s trained marine mammal responders.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A beloved Salish Sea humpback whale known as Pop Tart is swimming free after spending nearly a week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":755258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-755257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/755258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}