West Highland fishers save entangled humpback whale’s life
A YOUNG humpback whale entangled in fishing gear in west Highland seas has been saved by two kind-hearted fishers, after they received training on how to save a whale’s life.
Yesterday (February 10), a young humpback whale was reported to be entangled in creel fishing gear to the north-east of Skye.
Two local creel fishers, Bally Philp and Haydn MacKenzie, were out fishing further south when they got the report. The duo, which have been trained by the Scottish Entanglement Alliance (SEA), arrived on-scene and carried out a full assessment.
“It was clear that the whale was entangled by a single rope around the tail, mid-fleet between the creels in approximately 35 metres of water,” said Ellie MacLennan, a SEA co-ordinator and PhD researcher at the University of Glasgow. “[The whale was] struggling to reach the surface under the substantial weight of the gear.
“Using the winch on board their vessel, the fishermen were able to take this weight off the whale, which then allowed for a swift and calm disentanglement while maintaining a safe distance from the animal. All rope was removed from the whale and the fleet was re-set.”
Skye salmon farmers Organic Sea Harvest (OSH), members of the local community and the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), all came together to help the two fishers locate and monitor the whale.
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Footage of the two fishers disentangling the baleen whale in Highland waters was captured on camera by Anthony Rigell.
Ellie continued: “This disentanglement is a great example of the vital role fishermen can and do play in entanglement mitigation, and the importance of understanding not just the animals involved, but also being familiar with the fishing gear and ground.
“This whale was entangled in the rope between creels. As is standard in most creel gear, this rope was buoyant and would have formed loops above the seabed, which entangled the whale. SEA is leading ongoing trials of sinking rope which lies on the seabed, in collaboration with Scottish fishermen. The use of such rope would likely have avoided this entanglement and shows that there may be a relatively straightforward mitigation for such entanglements in creel gear.”
Subject to funding, SEA hopes to run more disentanglement training for fishermen, to benefit whales and communities throughout Scotland.
