Humpback whale freed after being tangled in 500 feet of rope off B.C.’s coast
It’s been a busy summer for whale rescuers in B.C., with almost two entanglements a week. But this one has a happy ending.
A young humpback known as Tutu is swimming free again after a massive three-day effort to cut away nearly 500 feet of fishing gear that had wrapped around the whale.
“It was such a relief to see,” Paul Cottrell, Pacific Whale Rescue Coordinator with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), told Daily Hive.
“Tutu now is swimming freely, and the prognosis is excellent.”
A race against time
The rescue began on Sept. 4, when a vacationing Coast Guard employee spotted Tutu towing a buoy near Texada Island and called DFO’s 24-hour Marine Mammal Incident Hotline.
“That call was awesome,” said Cottrell. “We were able to start tracking right away.”
Within hours, recreational boaters north of Comox kept eyes on the whale long enough for fishery officers to attach a satellite tag to the trailing gear.
That tag proved crucial as the whale, showing no signs of slowing down, powered north through Campbell River and into Johnstone Strait.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) responders lean over the bow of a rescue vessel to cut away fishing gear from Tutu, a young humpback whale, during a three-day rescue operation off the B.C. coast. (Supplied)
On the first day alone, crews managed to cut away about 350 feet of rope. But darkness forced them to stop.
The next day, they picked up the chase near Port McNeill.
“This animal was just full of energy,” Cottrell said. “It wasn’t tiring out at all as we worked alongside it.”
The situation got even trickier when a BC Ferries vessel crossed the whale’s path. “We had to call the captain on the radio and say, ‘Don’t move, it’s not safe,'” Cottrell recalled.
By Saturday morning, rescuers discovered the best news of all: overnight, the last 85 feet of rope had slipped off on its own.
A happy ending, this time
Tutu escaped with only minor scrapes, but Cottrell stressed that not every whale is so lucky.
“These are slow, awful deaths if the gear isn’t removed,” he said. “That’s why every report matters.”
Entanglements are on the rise as humpback populations rebound in B.C. waters, moving back into coastal areas where they overlap with fishing gear and mooring lines.
“It’s fantastic to see more whales coming back, but we’re also seeing more gear interactions,” Cottrell told Daily Hive.
The rescue, Cottrell added, wouldn’t have been possible without the eyes and ears of recreational boaters, Straitwatch, the Pacific Whale Watch Association, and even ferry crews.
If you spot a whale trailing gear, call DFO’s Marine Mammal Incident Hotline right away at 1-800-465-4336.
“There’s nothing like the feeling of removing that last piece of rope and watching a whale swim off, full of energy,” said Cottrell.
“That’s what keeps us going.”
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