Another right whale entangled in fishing gear

HALIFAX — An endangered North Atlantic right whale has been freed after getting entangled in fishing gear near the area where six other whales were found dead.

Tonya Wimmer of the Marine Animal Response Society said the large whale was cut free of the fishing line in its mouth after it was spotted by an aerial surveillance plane in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on Wednesday afternoon.

“It’s a good news story ... thank goodness,” said Kim Davies of Dalhousie University’s Department of Oceanography. “It was disentangled pretty readily — they didn’t have to chase it over multiple days.”

The whale didn’t appear to have been snarled in the mess of gear for very long, and appeared to not have suffered serious injuries, Davies said.

A research ship was nearby and marine mammal experts were able to free the whale within six hours of it being spotted.

The discovery comes after six of the massive animals were found floating in the gulf, with two suffering injuries consistent with ship strikes and a third dying from an entanglement in fishing gear.

One of the six dead whales has now drifted close to shore on the Magdalen Islands. Wimmer said they are discussing sending a team to do an animal autopsy to determine its cause of death, as had been done in three others.

“It seems very clear that there definitely are a lot of right whales that are using that habitat ... they’re definitely encountering the gear that obviously is in that area,” Wimmer said.