Team tracking tangled right whale could head for Halifax

In a series called Deep Trouble, CBC News explores the perils facing the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

A Newfoundland-based non-profit group that helps free entangled sea animals has followed a North Atlantic right whale to Nova Scotia in an effort to cut it free of thick rope.

Wayne Ledwell, with Whale Release and Strandings, said they were first alerted by Fisheries and Oceans Canada on Monday about a satellite-tagged whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence people had already attempted to free from gear.

After trying to intercept the whale off the coast of St. John's, Ledwell and his team agreed to head for Cape Breton when the whale changed direction for Nova Scotia.

On Wednesday, the group went out with Fisheries and Canadian Coast Guard crews from North Sydney, N.S., and found the whale, but conditions meant they only got one pass at trying to cut rope. On Thursday, they found the whale in Sherbrooke.

"We had three or four attempts at it," he said. "We managed to get close to its head, made three cuts on [the rope] and I think we took a substantial amount of rope off of it, which was pretty good considering that it was so bloody hard to get near it."

Rope cleared from blowhole

Although he couldn't say for certain how much rope has been removed or how much remains, Ledwell said his team was able to clear rope away from the whale's blowhole. He said the whale isn't towing gear anymore, but there is still rope wrapped around part of its head.

North Atlantic right whales are an endangered species that number about 400 in the world. Eight have been found dead in Canadian waters this year.

With the whale now tracking toward Halifax, Ledwell said the team would follow if that's where it goes, and as long as it's within 40 kilometres of shore they'll make further attempts to remove any remaining gear.

"We know we sunk two knives into the rope that are still there because it broke off a pole," he said.

Ledwell couldn't say what kind of gear was attached to the whale, although he said the fishing rope is heavy.

"It's like heavy, nine-sixteenths nylon rope," he said. "Some of these tow gear for a long, long time and this one probably is the same based on some of the embedded rope that's around the side of its head, down over its jawline."

He's hoping planes involved with the search can get an image of the whale so they have an accurate sense of what might still need to be removed.

It's difficult to know the condition of the whale, he said, although removing all of the gear certainly would be a help.

"They have an amazing ability to survive even though they've got all this stuff happening to them, so who knows," said Ledwell.

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