August 7, 2018 — It took an hour and a half to disentangle a 10-year-old North Atlantic right whale that was spotted more than a week ago wrapped in fishing gear.
It was spotted by the Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station Sunday afternoon, and reported to Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), and the Campobello Whale Rescue Team, which ended up disentangling the whale.
Jerry Conway, who has been involved in whale disentanglement for four decades, said the team removed most of the gear from the whale.
“We can’t say that it was entirely disentangled, but we’re quite optimistic that it has been,” he said Monday morning.
Conway said it’s hard to know how far the whale had travelled from the area where it was originally spotted in last week.
“This whale had been entangled for five days … so it could have been anywhere.”
But according to Conway, the whale was spotted just off the coast of Grand Manan Island and it was not co-operative with the rescue team.