Drone video shows rescue of grey whale tangled in fishing line near Vancouver Island
Fisheries and Oceans Canada says a grey whale that was reported caught in a fishing net in Nootka Sound last week has been freed after several days of effort.
Paul Cottrell, marine mammal coordinator for the DFO, tells CTV News Vancouver Island the first call about the whale came in on July 27 from the group of First Nations fishers in whose gear the animal got tangled.
"It broke away and it had at least 60 feet of gill net on it," Cottrell says. "We had a team out looking, but we weren't able to locate it until we got another report a couple days ago."
The whale, still trailing the gear, had moved up to Esperanza Inlet, where it was spotted by a recreational fisherman.
Cottrell says a nearby DFO crew was able to attach a satellite tag buoy to the debris trailing the whale and begin removing some of the net, but they couldn't get all of it.
The next day, the whale went out to sea.
"He went 20, 30 miles offshore, so we couldn't get him," Cottrell says. "Luckily, he came in shore on Saturday, so that was yesterday, and so we went out and had a team ready to go."
Cottrell says the grey whale is quite young, possibly only a couple of years old. He says the whale is about 26 feet long and may actually be too young to have been identified and named in DFO's tracking system.
Crews located the whale using the latest satellite ping and a drone, encountering the animal even farther north, off of Brooks Peninsula.
"We were able to work with the whale," Cottrell says. "It was about four hours. It was a bad one."
He says he had to make 10 different cuts in the gear - which he described as "a mass of meshes and corks and lead line" stuck around the animal's tail - to free the whale.
Drone video of the effort shared with CTV News shows the whale thrashing and rolling to break free of the gear, as crews hold onto the net and use poles to loosen and cut it.
Eventually, the animal breaks free, and can be seen swimming away without any fishing gear left stuck to it.
"We were all exhausted, but it's so nice to actually have an endgame and actually have the drone show that all the gear's off," Cottrell says. "Usually it takes, you know, a couple weeks for us to verify because the whale takes off so fast."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'One of the single most terrifying things ever': Ontario couple among passengers on sinking tour boat in Dominican Republic
A Toronto couple are speaking out about their 'extremely dangerous' experience on board a sinking tour boat in the Dominican Republic last week.
What Canadians think of the latest Liberal budget
A new poll suggests the Liberals have not won over voters with their latest budget, though there is broad support for their plan to build millions of homes.
opinion Why you should protect your investments by naming a trusted contact person
Appointing a trusted person to help with financial obligations can give you peace of mind. In his personal finance column for CTVNews.ca, Christopher Liew outlines the key benefits of naming a confidant to take over your financial responsibilities, if the need ever arises.
Teacher shortages see some Ontario high school students awarded perfect grades on midterm exams
Students at a high school in York Region have been awarded perfect marks on their midterm exams in three subjects – not because of their academic performances however, but because they had no teacher.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
Photographer alleges he was forced to watch Megan Thee Stallion have sex and was unfairly fired
A photographer who worked for Megan Thee Stallion said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that he was forced to watch her have sex, was unfairly fired soon after and was abused as her employee.
Ottawa injects another $36M into vaccine injury compensation fund
The federal government has added $36.4 million to a program designed to support people who have been seriously injured or killed by vaccines since the end of 2020.
An Ontario senior thought he called Geek Squad for help with his printer. Instead, he got scammed out of $25,000
An Ontario senior’s attempt to get technical help online led him into a spoofing scam where he lost $25,000. Now, he’s sharing his story to warn others.
Her fiance has been in prison for 49 years. She's trying to free him before it's too late
Christine Roess is a retired consultant. Ezra Bozeman has spent the last 49 years in prison, serving a life sentence for a murder he says he didn’t commit. Against the odds, the two fell in love.