Just five days after British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) untangled a humpback whale from fish-farm rope off Skye, a pair of fishermen from the Scottish island have managed to rescue another humpback in a similar predicament.
The men had been fishing south of the entanglement site on 9 February when they heard that the cetacean had been spotted with a single floating rope that connected creel fishing-gear wrapped around its tail.
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Demonstrating the value of training they had received from the Scottish Entanglement Alliance (SEA) a few years earlier, the men hauled in the creels to take the weight off the whale and were able to effect the rescue with a single cut.
Launched in 2018 in response to an increase in marine-animal entanglement reports in Scottish waters, SEA is a partnership of six bodies that works with the inshore fishing industry to provide a co-ordinated monitoring and engagement programme.
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SEA trials
Being buoyant, the creel rope that caught the whale had created loops in the water, but the SEA has been liaising with creel-fishers to trial the use of alternative sinking rope. This would lie flat on the seabed and so pose less of a danger to cetaceans.
BDMLR had received a call about the entanglement at 9.45am and its Large Whale Disentanglement Team had once again been alerted, abandoning a training programme 370km south near Largs and setting off to help.
The team were stood down at 2.30pm on hearing that the fishermen had saved them the trouble.
“While this situation had a positive outcome we would always advise calling BDMLR to report an entanglement, as things can and do go wrong,” said the group. “Our sincere thanks to the local BDMLR Medics and drone operator as well as the local fish-farm offering boats and support.”
Also on Divernet: VOLUNTEERS FREE TETHERED WHALE IN SKYE, HUMPBACK WHALE BACK AT SEA AFTER SCOTLAND STRANDING, JULY BRINGS RARE AND UNUSUAL WHALE SIGHTINGS, BDMLR READY AS DOLPHIN STRANDS IN CORNWALL
