A humpback whale was so entangled in fishing gear, ropes and buoys that it took four days for a Fisheries Department crew to unravel the mess, Paul Cottrell said.

The rescue off British Columbia含羞草研究社檚 coast between Prince Rupert and Haida Gwaii was one of the longest he had ever taken part in, he said.

It was clear the animal had been trapped for months, said Cottrell, a marine mammal co-ordinator with the department.

含羞草研究社淲e didn含羞草研究社檛 even know how to start on this animal because it was so constricted. Its mouth was closed with two wraps around the head, and there were ropes through the mouth, around the body,含羞草研究社� said Cottrell.

He said the team had to make 50 cuts to get the ropes and gear off.

含羞草研究社淭his poor animal was showing evidence of being exhausted and hadn含羞草研究社檛 been feeding for quite a while,含羞草研究社� said Cottrell, adding that the gear they removed came from Canada and the United States, indicating the long journey the whale had taken while wrapped in fishing gear.

Cottrell said there含羞草研究社檚 been 含羞草研究社渁 real uptick in entanglements含羞草研究社� like this one off B.C.含羞草研究社檚 coast, which he suspects is related to an influx of humpback whales in the area.

Whale conservation groups are calling for more training and equipment outside of the Department of Fisheries to allow others to help save the animals.

Cottrell said his team was in the Prince Rupert area on Sept. 3 doing a necropsy on a fin whale, when they got the call alerting them about an entangled whale in Hecate Strait.

When they found the whale, estimated to be about 10-metres long, it was 含羞草研究社渋n very poor shape含羞草研究社� and hardly able to get to the surface and breathe, said Cottrell.

He said the whale showed a burst of energy after being released, but it suffered many injuries so they含羞草研究社檒l be watching the health of the animal.

Cottrell said his team has been running non-stop this summer, dealing with at least one entanglement a week.

Janie Wray, CEO of North Coast Cetacean Society, said northern B.C. has historically been a 含羞草研究社渉ot spot含羞草研究社� for humpbacks, where researchers sometimes meet 30 to 40 such whales foraging.

The society has been conducting a study, using drones and photography, to determine how many whales in the area have been entangled looking for scars from fishing gear.

One of their drones caught a photo of a whale with a long rope attached to itspectoral fin in 2022 and they reported it to the DFO immediately, Wray said.

She said she was relieved to see the same whale had survived when it revisited in 2023.

Jackie Hildering, a humpback researcher for the Marine Education and Research Society based out of Port McNeill, B.C., said many of the entanglements are never documented, the whales are never detected and therefore can含羞草研究社檛 be saved.

Hildering said their preliminary research shows that 含羞草研究社�50 per cent of humpbacks in B.C. have scarring left from being entangled.含羞草研究社�

It含羞草研究社檚 unclear how many humpbacks have died, she said.

One example of such entanglements is a humpback they含羞草研究社檝e called Catalyst that whale watchers have seen without a tail near B.C.含羞草研究社檚 Discovery Islands.

Catalyst含羞草研究社檚 entanglement around its tail was never documented, she said, raising questions about how many others die and sink to the bottom of the ocean without discovery.

Wray has also heard about Catalyst含羞草研究社檚 story and said they haven含羞草研究社檛 seen it since July 22.

She said more resources need to be added to saving these whales, and that means more teams in the water unravelling the animals.

Wray said she worries that if Cottrell retires in 10 years, there won含羞草研究社檛 be anyone left to do the work, 含羞草研究社渟o other people need to be trained and know how to disentangle a whale.含羞草研究社�