Humpback whales still tangled in ropes off Nova Scotia

Two Humpback whales are the objects of separate searches by groups trying to free them. The Marine Animal Response Society said one whale was seen off the west coast of the province in the Bay of Fundy, while the other was spotted off north-east  Cape Breton.

Andrew Reid was part of a team that went out to an area off Ingonish, Cape Breton, yesterday, in the hope of finding the whale spotted trailing a buoy with rope around its tail.

“It did appear that there was some weight on the end of the rope. It would slow the whale down. It never lifted its tail out,” Reid told CBC News.. “It could start digging into the skin, cause infections. Or it might just inhibit it from eating properly.”

Fisheries officers found the whale at one point and tried to untangle it, but the whale did not co-operate. It was spotted again over the weekend, but rough seas made searching difficult on Sunday, said Reid.

He said local whale-watch operators in both areas are keeping an eye out for the distressed whales. The society believes they are two different whales.

In the Bay of Fundy last week, rescue teams spent several hours trying to free a whale with rope around its dorsal fin near Brier Island.

“It was being very evasive and not giving them the opportunity to get the gear off,” Reid said.

Jess Tudor works with the Brier Island Lodge as a whale watcher, and was on the water when something unusual was spotted last Thursday.

“He was obviously in distress because he was going down for 14 minutes on average. When he blew out, exhaled, there was a loud what they call trumpeting, stressful noise,” he said. “There was a little bit of rope on his back you could see, and there was some chaffage along his back.”

Tudor said whale-watching crews have not seen an entangled whale in that area for several years.

Humpback whales are considered a species of special concern under the federal Species at Risk Act.