British Divers Marine Life Rescue has been working overtime recently to untangle whales from line in Scotland’s western isles, responding to four incident reports in the past three months alone.
Its latest rescue involved a 15m sperm whale that had fallen foul of as much as 20m of rope – though despite BDMLR’s intervention the weakened animal later stranded and died off Raasay, a small island between Skye and the mainland.
The stricken whale was originally spotted on 27 February and reported to BDMLR, which sent its Large Whale Disentanglement Team (LWDT) to a location off Skye’s east coast. The whale was able to swim only weakly as a result of its entanglement but poor weather ruled out any immediate attempt to free it.
Using boats and drones the following day the team were able to see that a number of lines were wrapped around the whale but the weather had not improved enough to allow them to approach until 1 March.
At that point the rescuers were able to cut five wraps of rope forward of the pectoral fin and one trailing line, which they said represented the worst of the entanglement.
The sperm whale immediately started swimming faster and further, though at least two wraps remained around its head along with a trailing line. The BDMLR rescuers hoped that these would come away in time, but as the weather worsened they lost sight of the whale.
However, they stated that the animal’s presence in the Sound of Raasay indicated that it was suffering from an undetected health condition and was in danger of stranding – and their fears proved correct. The whale was reported to have died on 3 March.
BDMLR is part of the Scottish Entanglement Alliance. And diver spotting a stranded or entangled whale can contact BDMLR’s emergency helpline on 01825 765546.
Also on Divernet: VOLUNTEERS FREE TETHERED WHALE IN SKYE, ANOTHER HUMPBACK WHALE FREED OFF SKYE, SPAT OUT: WHY WHALES WON’T SWALLOW HUMANS, FALSE KILLER WHALES SHOT AFTER MASS STRANDING
