Campobello rescue team cuts line from snared right whale

Not all of the summer visitors to the area have headed home. Seventy eight right whales, and a number of smaller whales, are still in the Bay of Fundy, according to Laurie Murison of the Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station. "They stayed through late November last year," she says, before starting their journey south to their winter home off the southeast coast of the United States. "I won't even guess how long the whales will be here this year." Through a cooperative agreement among conservation organizations, government and shipping companies, shipping lanes were moved further east this year, which, according to Myra 'Mo' Brown of the New England Aquarium's right whale research team in Lubec, "gives the right whales more space to go about their business here" without the danger of colliding with the large cargo ships. Collisions with ships are one of the most common causes of death for the mammoth sea mammals.

Another danger is entanglement in fishing gear. On Tuesday morning, September 18, Mackie Green of Island Cruises and two volunteers with the whale rescue team on Campobello, fisherman Joe Howlett and Department of Transportation supervisor Danny Parker, went out to try to free an entangled right whale. "It's pretty exciting, quite exhilarating, trying to work on a right whale. But it's dangerous as well, especially around the tail. We have protocols and safety regulations that we follow," says Green.

The whale had been spotted off Cape Cod in an aerial survey in March caught in the ropes and wasn't spotted again until September 18. "It was about 27 miles southeast of Head Harbour," explains Green. "The New England Aquarium had counted 77 whales the day before. When so many whales are close together, it's easy to mix up the whales and lose sight of the one that's tangled. You need a fast boat and a good deal of experience to be able to come up close to the whale as it surfaces. When I am near the whale, I get tunnel vision. I go right toward the lines, and we have long-handled tools with cutters on the end. We were lucky C we cut loose one of the lines on the first approach, when we had the element of surprise. On the second try, the whale knows we're there, and the rescue becomes much more difficult." Despite several more hours of effort, the team did not get a second chance to cut another line still entangling the whale.

Green says that right whales "are entirely different from humpbacks. We work [rescuing] all types of whales, and humpbacks will lay there while we work on them and more easily tire out. Sometimes even after the lines are cut, the humpback will lay there. On one, we had to grab its tail to get it swimming, and then it took off."

Green says he finds satisfaction in freeing the large cetaceans, but sometimes, on the way back to port, says to himself, "Holy cow, I have kids at home." Despite the excitement and the satisfaction, a close encounter with a right whale still gives this experienced captain pause.

For more information about right whale rescue, go to <http://www.animalrescueblog.org>.