Whale calf rescued from entanglement
A New Brunswick whale rescue team helped free a whale calf entangled in rope off Brier Island.
Campobello Whale Rescue Team was dispatched to the scene and, with the help of Mariner Cruises Whale and Seabird Tours, as well as the Coast Guard Cutter Westport, they were able to free the calf and reunite it with its mother.
Around noon on July 14 Mariner Cruises Whale and Seabird Tours was out on a whale watching trip when the crew and passengers noticed two whales – one whale was tangled in rope.
“The passengers were very concerned. All of our hearts were in our throats,” said Shel- ley Lonergan, chief naturalist and research specialist with the whale watching company. They called the Marine Animal Response Society who, in turn, called in the Campobello Whale Rescue Team.
The rope was wrapped around the whale’s head and if it wasn’t rescued, it could have died, said Lonergan.
“If those whales didn’t approach us, we would have never seen the entanglement,” she said.
The last entanglement she remembers witnessing on a whale watching trip was in 2016. “It’s not common, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.”
Mariner Cruises Whale and Seabird tours stayed with the whale until the coast guard arrived, then the coast guard boat stayed until it was rescued.
“When a rescue is underway they really rely on other boats to standby, so we don’t lose the whales,” she said.
The Coast Guard Cutter Westport assisted the Campobello Whale Rescue Team with the rescue.
“It was pretty amazing to watch,” said Peter Milhausen with the Coast Guard Cutter Westport.
“The mom was really nervous for the boat to get close to them but once it was free they were on their way,” he said.
The rescue took close to four hours from the time of the first sighting to the whale being freed.
This past weekend was the first time the Campobello Whale Rescue Team had freed an entangled whale since rescuer Joe Howlett died during the rescue of a North Atlantic right whale on July 10, 2017.