A juvenile humpback whale with a hankering for herring became temporarily trapped in a fishing enclosure in the Bay of Fundy, where it had a feast that gave local fisherman a minor headache.
The whale swam into the fishing weir -- a fence-like fishing trap used in tidal waters -- near the small fishing village of Blacks Harbour, N.S., on Monday.
“It doesn’t look stressed or anything, it’s getting force fed right now – the weir is catching fish, it’s happy to eat,” fisherman Chuck Breen told CTV Atlantic. “But I don’t know, if you do the wrong thing and it does get stressed, what do you do then? We’re in a small boat, it’s a 30-ton animal.”
The owner of the weir said he reached out to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and some whale rescue groups. The DFO has clear protocol to follow when a whale becomes trapped in a lobster line, but rules around fishing weirs are less clear.
The fisherman said the DFO advised them to create some passageways in the weir for the whale to pass through. About 6 metres of twine was removed at one area of the weir in hopes that rising tides would create an easy exit for the humpback.
The tactic didn’t immediately free the whale. Instead, it just kept eating. The fisherman said the loss is substantial, but herring have been plentiful this fishing season -- making whale sightings (and feastings) more common.
Finally, by Friday afternoon, a whale-watching boat said it spotted the trapped humpback make its getaway into the open water.
A humpback whale off the coast of Newfoundland made headlines in July, after it became entangled in a batch of snow crab pots. It took more than a month for the whale to shed the fishing gear.
With files from The Canadian Press
