Tina Kuschel was on a kayaking trip last week with her sister in the Penn Islands, east of Campbell River, when she spotted two humpback whales.
The sisters had been eating dinner on the shore when they noticed that the whales appeared to be caught in a prawn trap. They heard the whales trumpeting, which is a sign of distress, and watched as the giant mammals swam closer to shore.
“Right away we saw that they were trailing the prawn trap, or at least one of them,” Kuschel said, adding that the whales showed other signs of distress, such as tail slapping and swinging close to shore.
“They were so close, you could see everything with a naked eye,” said Kuschel, who’s an elementary school teacher. “But I knew we needed to get ID shots of the fin and fluke.”
The sisters knew they had to call Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to get help for the whales, which they later learned are named Raza and Mogul.
The number of humpback whales becoming entangled in fishing gear has been increasing.
A study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration looking at U.S. West Coast whale entanglements from 1982 to 2017 found reports of entangled humpback and grey whales have increased from an average of 10 reports per year between 1982 and 2013 to an average of 50 reports a year between 2014 and 2017.
WATCH | Two whales rescued after rare double entanglement:
Fisheries and Oceans Canada was called out to help two whales that were tangled in fishing gear off the coast of B.C. after being spotted by kayakers.
Kuschel called the DFO incident line right away when she noticed the entanglement, and said she was immediately put in touch with Paul Cottrell, DFO marine mammals coordinator. She sent photos of the whales and by the next day, DFO arrived to help.
When the rescue crew arrived, they used a drone to view the whales and were surprised by what they saw.
“These poor whales were actually tethered together. I’ve never had that experience. I’ve rescued a whale at a time, but this was crazy having two,” Cottrell said.
The whales were locked together for over a day and the disentanglement took about five hours, Cottrell said.
How the two whales became entangled is unknown, but Cottrell thinks the first whale got caught and towed the trap’s buoy, which led to the other animal becoming trapped as they moved through the water together.
“We really took our time with the drone to get a good idea of the configuration and how the animals were working kind of with each other, but against each other. They were pretty agitated,” he said. “It was a [really] bad situation.”
The rescue crew put a working line between the two whales to separate the gear and move it onto the boat. After an hour, the whales were agitated, but the crew saw progress.
For half an hour the crew watched the whales to make sure they were both gear-free.
“The team was just elated,” Cottrell said.
Prevention is vital
Prevention is key when it comes to whale entanglements, says Marine Education and Research Society humpback whale researcher Jackie Hildering.
“It has to be about prevention, reducing the overlap, getting rid of the gear that’s drifting around in the ocean that can entangle again and again,” said Hildering.
Kuschel and her sister were in the right place at the right time in the case of Raza and Mogul, she said.
“When I reflect on it now, we were all lucky,” Kuschel said. “We saw them getting the entanglement and being able to report it within 15 minutes and that unfortunately can’t always happen.”
Kuschel suggested traps could be reduced or removed between May and October, when whales are in Canadian waters.
“There is this conflict of interest between animals and humans, and we really need to be conscious of what we can do,” she said. “It’s like slalom for those whales going through those waters.”
Preliminary research from the DFO has found nearly 50 per cent of all humpbacks sampled in B.C. have scarring that indicates they have been previously entangled. Humpbacks and grey whales are two of the most common species to get entangled.
“We need these whales, they’re doing a lot of really good work for us and not just in terms of economics, but they’re fertilizing this ecosystem and allowing for the capture of carbon,” Hildering said.
The marine society has been tracking Mogul and Raza since 2018. Raza has been spotted off northeastern Vancouver Island, while Mogul has not been spotted since last week’s rescue.
Kuschel is planning on sharing the adventures to her elementary class in September when she returns to the classroom.
“All those experiences I always share with my kids,” she said. “It’s a privilege to be able to experience that.”