My crewmates and I successfully disentangled a humpback whale this morning. I have to give credit to the many seminars I have attended over the years on the subject, David Mattila, my experience with humpbacks, my crewmates, and the disentanglement gear and a few others who cannot be named. Today, Nov. 28th, while headed out to go lobster fishing in St. Mary's Bay, we encountered a humpback whale that was tail breaching. My captain (Howard Graham) noticed it first and alerted me. The time was 6:50 a.m. AST. It was just after daylight. We were just 1 nm south of the southern passage ( Peter's Island ) Lat. 44.14.26 Long. 66.20.06 (off Greenhead). We went over to have a look and noticed a large yellow balloon (buoy) and a smaller buoy along side the whale. I groaned. After further observation we saw that the whale was entangled in the buoy line of a lobster trawl. We could see the buoys from the other end of the trawl nearby. (Trawls around here usually have 15 to 20 traps with 50lb to 80lb anchors on each end. The depth of the water at this location was 34 fathoms so there was certainly 70 fathoms of buoy line on each end of the trawl). We noticed 2 wraps of line around the girth of the whale midway between the blowhole and dorsal fin. We watched for a few minutes as the whale would spyhop, stretch, and occasionally tail breach but did not seem overly distressed. It would drift slowly north, then drift slowly south. Obviously it was caught up in the buoy line of a trawl, which is anchored on both ends. So the whale was limited in it's movement. Other fishermen and I suggested that Howard call Fundy Coast Guard radio. He called. They responded and we were told to stand by. We waited over an hour... In the meantime I talked to Harold Graham, who was also fishing, called Shelley Barnaby on her cell, called the Coast Guard station at Northern Point (they were waiting for permission from Halifax) and talked to Roy Graham who was fishing in the area and he came along to help monitor the situation. His wife Penny was taking either video or photos at the time. (I will talk to her when they get home.) We also contacted the owner of the buoys/trawl, ("Bay Challenger" out of Freeport). He was miles away but gave us permission to haul his gear if need be. My other crewmates were Floyd Graham and Jason Graham. (Jason happened to have a disposable 35 mm on board so I took a few shots of the entanglement and he took the rest.) Anyways, no sign of the Coast guard. Howard finally got a call from Fundy Coast Guard on the VHF and said Halifax had been alerted. We were told to STAND BY. We were getting frustrated. I called Shelley again and she saw no movement of the Coast Guard. (She was in Westport at the office.) All the while I was being very patient. I think the whale probably got entangled overnight. The whole fleet goes out that passage morning noon and night. It would have been noticed otherwise. I was talking with Roy Graham on the VHF and we had discussed hauling up one of the buoy lines and cutting off at least one anchor. I suggested this as a last resort. Right now the whale was "Restricted in his ability to manoeuvre," we have a much better chance to get the deed done. He agreed. Roy went off to fish nearby and we stayed with the animal. Here I am on the "Becky and Boys," (sister ship to the "Kenney & Girls," whom you know intimately) tending an entangled whale. The whale was going no where so we went in and got the gear ourselves. We headed back out. We opened up the gear. I knew what I saw and knew what we needed. I think we did 5 extensions. We attached the smallest cutting knife. Floyd and I put on the gloves in the kit. Jason stood by. Howard used his good judgement (wind was SW 20, seas 3-5') to manoeuver the boat. It took several attempts but we finally got close enough so that I could attempt to snatch one of the 2 wraps. They were tight around the whale. Floyd was behind me holding on to the back of the pole for support. I was not having success. He suggested going under the rope from the back, but I disagreed and tried again to get the rope from the front so I could pull back. I finally got hold and SNAP we got one line. The whale was still alongside so I tried for the second line and I got it, but it would not cut. Floyd and I yanked hard and it finally came free but it did not cut the rope. After bringing the telescoping knife aboard we saw that the blade was damaged. So we looked through the KIT and saw another. We replaced it and tried again. Howard manoeuvred the boat and we got alongside again and we were successful at cutting the second line, again, which was across the girth of the whale. We all yelled in excitement. Moments later as the whale slowly drifted off, we noticed the yellow balloon/buoy was still floating along the whales back. We were patient, and went around the whale slowly (because of wind and weather) and noticed that rope from the balloon was sunk and wrapped around its right flipper. Our job was not done! So Howard manoeuvred the boat around again (at this point the "Chad & Sisters 2" came around to view the scene). At this point we witnessed an amazing thing. The whale came alongside us, it came to us. We had already cut the two lines around the girth and now needed to do more. I think the whale knew that. It wanted us to help. So as the animal laid there. It took all four of us after several attempts at gaffing the buoy, trying to cut the rope with both a knife and the entanglement gear, but finally we got the deed done. The whale sank, the buoy floated away and the whale splashed and dove. We saw the animal again and it was free of gear. It swam away. We were are so relieved and exhilarated and exhausted. We freed the animal at 9:05 AST. It seemed like at eternity but once we had the proper gear we had the deed done in 30 minutes. The whale helped and should also deserve credit. Afterthoughts... I noticed lots of raw, red chaffing on the peduncle. I initially thought it was more rope. The animal was 45', big girth.
