Whale of a course leads the way
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In the first workshop of its kind in Europe, creel fishermen and women from around Sutherland and other parts of Scotland gathered in the Highlands to tackle the growing problem of marine animal entanglement.
Organised by the Scottish Entanglement Alliance (SEA) and funded by the University Innovation Fund through Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), 20 creel fishermen and women from the Clyde and Helmsdale up to Shetland travelled to Ullapool in Wester Ross last weekend.
The aim was to work alongside project partners with the purpose of encouraging better reporting of entanglements, widen Scotland’s existing entanglement response network, and share insights to better understand, mitigate and respond to incidents.
There has been a recent spate of whales snared by fishing gear around Scotland.
A few weeks ago experts from the Scottish Marine Animal Strandings said a Sowerby’s beaked whale washed up at Gullane beach had some of the “most severe wounds” ever recorded from fishing gear. Scientists said it had probably suffered for months and experienced an “agonising death”.
The 14.7ft long female, weighing 433 lbs, was the latest of such net snaring incidents around the Scottish coast.
British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), SMASS, the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation (SCFF), Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) provided training at the Ullapool event. The two-day course comprised a full day of on-water training in assessing and approaching both free-swimming and anchored whales using local fishing and support vessels.
Ellie MacLennan, co-ordinator of the SEA project, said: “We organised this workshop in response to requests from the creel fishing community, who do not want to see the animals they work alongside getting snared in their gear.
“The fact that many of those in attendance travelled hundreds of miles and missed several fishing days to join in, clearly demonstrates the will within the industry to address this issue, which cannot be solved without the expertise and advice of the fishermen themselves.”
The course was delivered by David Mattila, technical advisor on entanglement response and ship strike reduction to the International Whaling Commission (IWC), and co-ordinator of the Global Whale Entanglement Response Network.
Since 1984, he has helped to develop unique rescue tools, techniques and training programmes and has to date trained more than 1200 responders in 34 countries.
Mr Mattila said: “It’s clear from all the experts that what you need to do is find champions in the fisheries. And it is clear here that the Scottish Entanglement Alliance has found some real champions in the Scottish creel sector.”
He was assisted in the on-water training sessions by members of BDMLR’s dedicated large whale disentanglement team, including Martin Boon, who was involved in the recent successful disentanglement of a humpback whale in Orkney, where the team worked with local fishermen and community members to free the animal.
Bally Philps, creel fisherman and west coast representative for SCFF, said: “Entanglement is the biggest environmental issue facing the static gear sector, not just in Scotland but around the world. This weekend was a unique opportunity to work with a range of other stakeholder groups to address this. Hopefully this demonstrates that our sector is taking this issue seriously.”
Further courses are now being planned around the coast.
To find out more, visit www.scottishentanglement.org
Recently SMASS revealed that a minke whale killed after becoming snared in fishing nets off Orkney was pregnant.
Investigators said it too would have suffered an agonising death - especially over an “exhausting” last few hours - and blasted fishermen who “wilfully” throw gear overboard.
The 28-ft long adult female came ashore on Sanday on September 28.
More than a sixth of the most common species of whale found in Scottish waters - minke whales - have been damaged by fishing equipment, a previous investigation has revealed.
Fortunately a giant humpback whale was freed from being snared in fishing gear in Orkney on October 1.
A specially trained group of volunteers from BDMLR were mobilised to rescued the animal trapped off Westray.
The report was received from a local fisherman who discovered the animal anchored in his fishing ropes.
In May it was discovered that fishing gear that snared a giant humpback whale to its death on the north Caithness coast originally came thousands of miles away from Nova Scotia.
The whale came ashore close to Scrabster, near Thurso.
Investigators have probed if the whale got entangled off Canada and dragged the rope and buoy across the Atlantic or - more likely - if the gear floated to off Scotland and then snared the humpback.
Humpback whales are at high risk of entanglement in ropes and lines in the water - including the giant snared in fishing gear at Helmsdale in 2015.
It was used by TV adventurer Ben Fogle as “bait” to see if he could prove great white sharks visited UK waters.
Humpbacks have 19 feet long flippers which make them prone to snagging ropes. Given that they cannot swim backwards, a simple entanglement can be fatal or lead to prolonged suffering.
The whales travel thousands of miles from warm-water breeding grounds to the cold-water feeding grounds in the polar regions.
