Rescuers Free Entangled Humpback Whale

Officials say a lobster fisherman played a crucial role saving an entangled humpback whale off Grand Manan.

The 12-metre marine mammal finally swam free at about 10 o'clock Wednesday morning after spending the night tethered near Gannet Rock by lobster gear wrapped around it and anchored to the sea floor.

The fisherman, whom officials declined to name, reported the whale tangled in his gear to the Grand Manan Fishermen's Association at about 1 p.m. Tuesday.

However, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Southwest New Brunswick Area director Steve Wilson, and Mackie Greene of the Campobello Whale Rescue Team, said that bad weather prevented a rescue crew from going out until Wednesday morning.

Further, said Greene, who has seven years experience saving whales, the Campobello team had already put its rescue boat and gear away for the winter.

So at 6 a.m., Fisheries Officers Joe Greenlaw and Cameron Ingersoll on Grand Manan put to sea a nine-metre (30-foot) Zodiac boat for Campobello.

They picked up Greene and Scott Landry from the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies on Cape Codd, Mass., who caught a flight from Boston to Bar Harbour, Maine, the night before, at 8 a.m.

They arrived at Gannet Rock at 9 a.m., then Greene and Landry went to work. The job only took an hour once they got there.

Greene later described it as a "textbook rescue" although they did break knives and equipment.

Greene and Wilson said the fisherman did his part by reporting the incident immediately and staying with the animal. He used pictures supplied by the fishermen's association to identify it as a humpback.

"He started hauling his gear when he realized there was a whale on the other end," Wilson said.

"It was just a text-book case of exactly what you'd want the fisherman to do," Greene said.

"He's as happy as we are that the whale is free," Greene said. "He didn't want to see a whale die in his gear."