Located on the west of Scotland eagle eyed Loch Fyne locals spotted a whale on Sunday evening, then on Monday morning noted the humpback hadn’t moved.
The whale was caught in anchored creel lines.
What followed was an amazing team effort between the locals and the ever wonderful BDMLR.
Jason, a team GFUK volunteer diver and skipper of a local dive boat charter was able to assist in the rescue:
It was horrible for everyone to see the whale in such distress, but there was also a great sense of pride to having played even a small part in what was a terrific, successful rescue
The poor whale had two lines of rope wrapped tightly around its head, and one twisted going through its mouth.
BDMLR said:
Cut by cut, the lines were successfully removed from the whale and final views of it underwater showed it to be clear. It quickly swam away and was seen a short while later free from line and free swimming. An exhausted, but disentangled whale
British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) was formed in 1988 by a few like minded divers, they are a registered charity in England, Wales and Scotland.
Since the humpback rescue a local fisherman has said that there are over 500 creels missing in Loch Fyne. GFUK are in discussions to run multiple projects in the Loch to bring up as many of the lost the creels as possible from the seabed. There are also reports of other types lost fishing gear, all which would have to be surveyed by our team and detailed plans made before recovery.
We need to remove this gear to prevent further entanglement hazards to large cetaceans, and to prevent further ghost fishing of smaller marine life.
We are hugely grateful to Jason one of our superhero volunteers, an extremely busy chap with his partner Claire Hallybone running a training centre, local dive club and a dive charter business, Wreckspeditions, from Holy Loch Marina in Dunoon.
Both volunteer with GFUK and BDMLR to protect our precious wildlife and waters from deadly ghost gear.
Picture credits: Cath Bain/BDMLR & Jason Coles/Wreckspeditions