USA TODAY International Edition
NOAA suspends whale rescues after fisherman is killed
‘ Freak’ accident spurs a protocol review
The U. S. is suspending whale rescue efforts after a Canadian fisherman died last week during one such mission.
Joe Howlett, founder of the Campobello Whale Rescue Team, was killed Monday while helping to free a North Atlantic right whale off the coast of New Bruns- wick. Mackie Green, captain of the rescue group, told the Canadian Press the team had succeeded in freeing the animal when “some kind of freak thing happened and the whale made a big flip,” striking Howlett.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA) is now “suspending all large whale entanglement response activities nationally until further notice, in order to review our own emergency response protocols in light of this event,” Kate Brogan, spokeswoman for the NOAA fisheries division, said in a statement. NOAA will continue to respond to all other reports of stranded marine mammals, she said.
Whale rescues can be risky. Jerry Conway, an adviser with the Campobello Whale Rescue Team, told Canadian Broadcasting Corp. News that rescuers are faced with all kinds of dangers, such as getting entangled in the rope themselves, being dragged over the side of the boat or being tipped into the water.
Deaths are uncommon, however. Howlett was the first person killed by a whale during a disentanglement since the 1970s, when U. S. and Canadian government groups and non- profits began to respond to such cases, said Cathrine Macort, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts- based Center for Coastal Studies, in an interview with the Bangor Daily News.
It is unknown when the suspension will end.
North Atlantic right whales, which dwell almost exclusively along the east coasts of the United States and Canada, are one of the world’s most endangered whale species, according to the Marine Mammal Commission. There are only 500 left in the world, Fisheries and Oceans Canada says.