A whale last seen off Cape Cod was spotted entangled in fishing gear
Canadian officials currently have a hold on rescues of the tangled whales.
A whale last seen off Cape Cod in April was spotted this week entangled in fishing gear in Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence, The Cape Cod Times reports. The sighting of the tangled 15-year-old male right whale on Monday comes at a time when Canadian officials have prohibited biologists from responding to entangled right whales, according to the paper. The pause on the whale rescues was sparked by the death of a certified whale entanglement expert who was killed in July by a right whale he’d just freed in Canadian waters. As of mid-August, 10 North American right whales had been found dead off Canada’s coast and three off the shores of Massachusetts. American and Canadian marine authorities are investigating why the endangered mammals are dying.Steve Hachey, a spokesman for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, told the newspaper the situation is being assessed “extremely closely.” “The entanglement of a right whale is an extremely difficult and distressing situation,” he said. Read the full report at the Times.
