Whale release program left high and dry

A group set up to help release whales caught in fishing gear says it doesn't have any money to do its work this season.

Wayne Ledwell of the Whale Release and Strandings Program says the group hasn't been able to free a small whale entangled in mooring ropes near Cape Broyle, on the Avalon Peninsula.

"The likelihood that it's going to survive for a lengthy period of time… it's very unlikely. And we just don't have the funds to go to attend to the animal," he says.

Ledwell says the group also couldn't respond to a report of a trapped whale on the Northern Peninsula this spring.

The Departments of Environment and Fisheries and Oceans provided grants for the past two years, but the program hasn't gotten any money this year.

Ledwell says there's been less interest in paying for a whale release program since the groundfish moratorium began in 1992. But he says many whales still get caught, and the program needs money.

Ledwell says he's going to Cape Broyle anyway to see if the whale can be freed.