Humpback whale found tangled in fishing ropes

‘Debris is a real problem for marine wildlife,’ officials warn

A large humpback whales has been rescued from entanglement in a fishing buoy’s lines, as its family watched on.

Rescuers tried cutting the ropes affecting the huge marine mammal before it finished the job itself with a spectacular backflip.

The operation was carried out under the watch of other cetaceans, which refused to leave the humpback’s side off the coast of Texada Island, in British Columbia.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), a department of the government of Canada, had received initial calls reporting a whale tangled in ropes tied to a yellow buoy on 13 October.

DFO searched for the whole day, but were unable to track the mammal down until Friday, when a whale-watching crew reportedly spotted it off the coast off the Texada Island.

The crews were able to put a satellite tag on the buoy and use a drone to ascertain how it was entangled.

The whale had tangled 90m of rope around its mouth, where the abrasive polysteel material had already begun to wear away its flesh.

Using the drone to monitor the behaviour of the animal and its companions, the rescuers spent four hours clearing away the entanglement, before putting a slight amount of tension on the rope.

A representative for DFO said: “Debris is a real problem for marine wildlife.

“The public can help prevent entanglements by cutting packing material, banding, rope and other looped material before disposing of it, and by not be disposing of these materials in the marine environment.”