Blogposts: 2019

So far this month SEA project partners have already responded to three entanglement cases – one with a happy ending involving a humpback whale that was successfully freed from creel gear by SEA partners British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) with assistance from the local fishing community (see previous post). However the other two were not so fortunate and involved a pregnant minke whale and a Soweby’s beaked whale. Here are the details from SEA project partner the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS):

Minke whale – Sanday, Orkney

“Another baleen whale found to be a victim of entanglement – this time an adult female minke whale which was found washed up dead tangled in fishing net. This case was found on Sanday, Orkney and comprehensively investigated by some of the SMASS volunteers on Orkney. The animal was in excellent body condition and pregnant with a mid-term foetus. It looked like it had become recently entangled in a section of discarded or lost fishing net- this had become jammed in the baleen and then dragged behind the animal. This would have hugely impaired the animal from feeding or swimming normally, and likely led to an exhausting last few hours of life. Based on the flank bruising and lungs, it appears this creature live stranded and drowned in the surf line.

Entanglement in nets and fishing lines is a growing global concern and this case highlights that entanglement risk in these species is not just from rope – lost, abandoned or discarded nets also represent a significant hazard to marine life. In this case, entanglement cost the lives of two animals – the mother and her unborn, female calf. Of course there are situations where gear is lost by accident of misfortune however this case further demonstrates why such interactions between marine wildlife and fishing gear can be both tragic at an individual level and potentially a risk to the population.

In this case, SMASS owe a particular debt of thanks to the team on Orkney, especially Imogen, Emma and Russ who took all the data and samples for this investigation, Robbie who assisted with transportation of samples, and also Smudger and Teri for assisting with photography”.

Sowerby’s beaked whale – Gullane, East Lothian

“On the 10th October the SMASS team began receiving reports of a beaked whale stranded on Gullane beach, East Lothian. This was quickly identified as a chronically entangled 4.5m long female Sowerby’s beaked whale with some of the most severe wounds we have recorded.

The animal was in thin body condition and showed severe trauma to the right pectoral fin, large areas of skin loss from the flank, and a loop of thin, green cord embedded around its neck. It had been entangled for long enough that the cord had worked its way right through the skin and blubber layer into the underlying muscle layer. In some places the skin had actually grown over the top of the rope; in others it had set up a deep tissue infection and abscessation. There were goose barnacles attached to the rope, an indication that the entanglement had considerably compromised the swimming capabilities of the animal. Based on the depth of the tissue trauma and the damage to the flank, it is highly likely this loop around the neck had at some point been attached to longer and heavier material. Miraculously, in this state the animal had still been able to feed, although not much and not recently. At some point over the last few days, it appears the rope somehow became wrapped around the pectoral fin, dislocating the shoulder joint and severing the pectoral fin. Unable to swim effectively, and most likely in a large amount of pain, the animal live stranded and died.

This animal suffered for a long time, certainly weeks, possibly months, ending in what we can only assume was an agonising death. This was a very grim case to witness and extremely concerning from both a welfare and a conservation point of view. It’s not possible to work out where the rope came from- it is similar to the type of material used in both recreational and commercial creel and net fisheries, but rather than point blame, maybe we should direct our efforts towards doing something about it? Cases like this are far from OK, so although this is a difficult issue, there are things we can all do to help.

For those involved in the fishing industry, you are in a key position to help bring about change. Please step up here and be part of the solution, for example through initiatives working towards minimising ghost gear and marine debris in the water such as GhostFishing UK and Fishing for Litter. For members of the public; beach cleans are a great start – every piece of debris, length of rope or fragment of net taken off the beach is one less hazard going back in the sea. If you can’t remove it, at least cut any loops- these are particularly lethal, as they can form a noose into which animals become trapped. If you want to know which beaches most need attention in Scotland, you could use our app www.beachtrack.org.

This is the tenth cetacean entanglement we’ve seen this year, and one of the worst we’ve encountered. The evidence is the issue is getting worse, affecting an increasingly wide range of species and causing unquantifiable harm and suffering to our marine populations. Everyone is responsible for the current state of our seas. Everyone has the opportunity to improve them. Please take what action you can.

SMASS were kindly offered the use of the necropsy facilities at the National Museums of Scotland for examination of this case. Thanks also to the many people who helped with this case, especially Corinne Gordon and Richard Riddell from British Divers Marine Life Rescue and East Lothian council for helping to recover the animal”.

The injuries sustained by and entangling line removed from the Sowerby’s beaked whale.

We would like to extend our sincerest thanks to all BDMLR team members, local fishermen, residents and businesses for all their extraordinary efforts in making this rescue possible. The success also owes a number of thanks to people who gave up time, transport, food and even beds, including: Andy Makin, Cooke Aquaculture Scotland Ltd, Brian Kent,Harry, John and Eileen, Peter Banczyk, Sandy and Willy of Westside Manse, Karen and Andy of the Old Mase, Tina of Biggin and Kim of Balaclava for providing very welcome accomodation, and Westray in general for being so welcoming. Special thanks to Northerly Marine Services for assistance with transport for the third time this year. Finally and no means least, our medics Teri, Emma and Imogen along with our LWDT members James, Noel, David, Boonie and Smudger!

If you are a creel fisherman and you encounter an entangled animal in your gear, please report this to the SEA project. If you would like to learn more about SEA’s work or get involved in this, please contact the SEA project coordinator Ellie MacLennan on 01463 246048, 07393 798153 or at ellie.maclennan@sac.co.uk. Any information you choose to share will be treated positively, sensitively and confidentially.

Photos: Noel Hawkins and Teri Charlton.

It’s been a busy few weeks travelling coast to coast from the industrial east to the wild west, but luckily the weather was (mostly) on my side. Also lucky was a bit of spare time between meetings, markets, interviews and office work to appreciate our coast and all it has to offer including stunning scenery and of course, some of the world’s finest seafood!

As always I spent much of my time on harbours meeting and interviewing fishermen, and while each area and it’s fishermen are unique, all have fascinating tales of incredible experiences they’ve shared with some of our bigger marine life. Here are just a few examples of the enviable encounters creel fishermen have had recently:

While speaking about his close encounters with humpback and minke  whales over the years, one fisherman I met last week told me how he reports all of his cetacean sightings to SEA partner the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT, www.hwdt.org) through their Whale Track app. He has been at sea for over 40 years working on a mixture of dredge, trawl and creel boats and noted an increase in the number and variety of animals he sees now. He commented that “Fishing is a dangerous job, it’s mentally and physically challenging and at times pretty thankless and frustrating. But when you’re the only boat out there and you see something like this [a whale], well %*#!  some people will never see a whale in their whole life and we get to experience it all the time. Its a good reminder of how lucky we are to live and work where we do, and always makes the day a little brighter”.

If you are a creel fisherman and would like to learn more about the SEA project or get involved in this, or if you ever come across an animal entangled in your gear, please contact the SEA project coordinator Ellie MacLennan on 01463 246048, 07393 798153 or at ellie.maclennan@sac.co.uk.

Any information you choose to share will be treated positively, sensitively and confidentially.

On Thursday 30th May the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) team travelled north to perform a necropsy on yet another entangled whale, which was first spotted by a local fisherman floating at sea earlier in the week. This was a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), which stranded on Scrabster beach, Caithness.

The young humpback whale washed ashore on Scrabster beach. 

A juvenile male, this case stranded wrapped in creel rope attached to a buoy, with rope encircling the pectoral fins pinning the left fin tightly to the body wall. This had caused significant rope lacerations to both fin margins and there were large amounts of liquid in both stomach and lungs, providing evidence the animal had likely drowned. Unusually, the gear removed from this animal did not come from the Scottish fleet and has been traced to a Nova Scotia lobster fishery, some 2500 miles away! We were able to make contact with the fisher and make him aware of this incident. He was devastated to hear about this much like all the other fishers the SEA programme have worked with who have encountered an entanglement, but he was very helpful and provided valuable information pertaining to this case which we could not have gained any other way.

This case does raise some very interesting questions – the animal was in moderate to good body condition, had evidence that it had fed reasonably recently and, in contrast to the previous humpback we reported last month near Dunbar, did not show signs of long term debilitation. In addition, the wounds associated with the rope were reasonably recent, with limited scarring and tissue remodelling, and there were marks around the tailstock and fluke made by different ropes which were no longer attached to the animal. It’s possible therefore that this was a two-stage entanglement as the pattern of skin abrasions around the tailstock and fluke suggest the animal had also been acutely entangled, but these ropes which became detached or were removed prior to the animal stranding. But where did this animal first became entangled? Did it entrain gear in the waters off Nova Scotia and drag the buoy across the Atlantic, or was the buoy ‘ghost gear’ which drifted across the Atlantic and entangled the animal off the coast of Scotland? We suspect the latter is more plausible based on the pathology, and also it is unlikely that a young animal like this would swim between both sides of the Atlantic. We may never know but with the help of fishermen, researchers and volunteers from Scotland, Canada and the USA we have been able to better our understanding of entanglements and highlighted that marine debris and ghost gear are genuinely a global hazard, whose impact spans ocean basins, sometimes affecting marine life many thousands of miles from where originally deployed.

Some of the injuries sustained by this humpback as a result of becoming entangled. 

We say this a lot, but please remember that no entanglement is deliberate, and understanding how to reduce and mitigate the risk to marine wildlife needs engagement from the fishing community- they are the solution to this issue, not the problem. In this and other cases we have reported on in recent weeks, the fishing community have played a vital role in allowing us to better understand how and why these incidents occur, and how these may be prevented in the future.

Left Image credits: Gavin Bird, Right Image credits: SMASS

7th May 2019

Two weeks later a juvenile minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) was reported, this time off the coast of Iona in the Inner Hebrides. The animal was discovered dead at sea entangled in creel lines which were anchoring it to the seabed.

Minke whales are much smaller than humpbacks and therefore less able to swim away or reach the surface to breath once entangled. In contrast to the humpback whale, this animal suffered an acute entanglement meaning that it likely died very quickly after becoming caught. This is evident from the apparent absence of tissue damage associated with the ropes. Though rapid drowning is perhaps a kinder end than enduring the suffering caused by a chronic entanglement, this does highlight how difficult it is to help in some cases where an immediate response is required.   

The minke whale was discovered entangled around the head. The animal had been dead for a couple of days at the time these images were taken, hence the tongue has inflated like a sail (this process is normal in baleen whale cases). Image credits: Hannah Elizabeth Fisher

19th May 2019

This weekend the SEA team received reports of a third animal, again a minke, spotted alive but entangled off the west coast of Barra by a group of local kayakers. One kayaker entered the water with the whale and was able to pull a section of rope from its mouth and capture some very useful video footage. However despite their best efforts the damage was already done and later the same evening the animal washed ashore and quickly died, possibly through exhaustion. This case again highlights the welfare implications of entanglements, for example it appears that this whale has suffered a fractured jaw. Although we cannot say for certain, it is plausible based on the severity of the injuries that at one point this animal was anchored by the entangling ropes to the seabed, and in attempting to free itself, has sustained significant damage which almost certainly would have prevented it from feeding.

Photographs captured by a member of the SMASS volunteer network reveal the extent of this entanglement, which was not only around the mouth but also the tail. The injuries suggest that someone else had attempted to free the animal by cutting away other entangling lines, which were no longer present by the time the kayakers encountered it. This whale is to be further examined tomorrow and numerous tissue samples will be collected for analysis by SMASS. From samples taken from the rope lesions we will be able to gain valuable insight in to what this animal was entangled in and the chronicity of this (i.e. how long it was entangled for). 

Last week the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS, www.strandings.org), a partner in the Scottish Entanglement Alliance (SEA), received a call about another whale entanglement – this time a minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) caught in ropes off the north-west coast of Scotland.

These unfortunate images show a juvenile animal entangled around the head in what appears to be creel lines. The animal had been dead for a couple of days at the time these images were taken, hence the tongue has inflated like a sail (this process is normal in baleen whale cases). The rope is visibly attached to the animal which appeared to be anchored to the seabed. In contrast to the humpback whale entanglement on the east coast detailed in the previous post, this minke whale showed an acute entanglement case, meaning the animal likely drowned very soon after becoming entangled. We estimate this based on the apparent absence of tissue damage associated with the ropes.

Whilst rapid drowning is perhaps better than enduring the suffering caused by chronic entanglement, this does highlight how difficult it is to help in some cases. Minke whales are the smallest baleen species in our waters and are less powerful swimmers, therefore less able to escape or surface to breathe once entangled (the humpback whale in the last post suffered a chronic entanglement, surviving entangled in ropes for weeks if not months before succumbing). In Scotland we do have a dedicated whale disentanglement team – British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) who are also a SEA partner – who can be contacted 24/7 however in cases such as this and others like it, by the time anyone realises these animals have become caught it is often too late to attempt a rescue.

Entanglements aren’t just a Scottish problem, they occur globally wherever marine animals and fishing gear overlap. However the good news is that SEA is working with the inshore creel fishing industry to better understand the scale and impacts of marine animal entanglements. To date over 100 Scottish creel fishermen have been involved in the SEA project, sharing their knowledge and expertise surrounding these unfortunate incidents, and their ideas of how these may be prevented.  This information is proving invaluable and all of the SEA partners are very grateful for their help.

In many areas around the Scottish coast creel fishing is not only economically important as a source of income and employment in fragile rural communities, it is an industry that also has strong social and cultural significance. No entanglement is deliberate and fishermen are often as upset (if not more) by these events as anyone. This case again highlights the need for projects such as SEA, which work with and support fishermen to find solutions to entanglements so that they can prevent these incidents from occurring whilst continuing to earn a living. It is vital that we continue to develop positive working relationships with the inshore fleet and we hope that the fisherman whose gear this was was able to retrieve it with minimal damage.

The young minke whale spotted at sea, entangled around the head and mouth. Image credits: Hannah Elizabeth Fisher

Top, Middle: The humpback washed ashore at Tyninghame earler this week with entangling ropes still attached. Image credit: East Lothian Council Countryside Rangers

Right: The necropsy underway. Image credit: SMASS

Entanglements are thankfully a relatively rare occurrence in Scottish waters and the reported prevalence of these events here over the last 20 years has remained low. However data collected by SMASS does suggest that the incidence and range of affected species does appear to be increasing. But this isn’t just a Scottish problem. Entanglement in fishing lines and nets is a growing concern globally and is considered by many to be the most significant welfare threat to marine mammals of our time. These incidents, as highlighted in this case, can interfere with an animal’s ability to move and feed, can cause horrific injuries which must be incredibly painful, and if many animals get entangled, the morbidity and mortality effects can have an impact at a population or even species level. On top of this, entanglements can pose a threat to human safety (disentanglement attempts can be incredibly dangerous) and have a significant financial impact on individual fishers through damage to their gear and lost fishing time. However it is vital to remember that no entanglement is deliberate, and more often than not it is fishermen who are more upset and affected by these incidents than anyone. It is also important to remember that it is often fishermen who come to the rescue of these stricken animals, for example it was a fisherman who first reported this entangled animal, and several Dunbar fishermen played an integral role in the successful disentanglement of a humpback here a few years ago.

This particularly sad case highlights the need for projects such as SEA, which was initiated by members of the Scottish inshore creel sector who recognised concerns over entanglement within their own industry.  To date over 100 creel  fishermen have contributed to SEA’s work by sharing information on their marine wildlife encounters, experiences of entanglement, and their ideas of ways to reduce the risks of these incidents occurring in the future. This is already leading to some exciting developments which would not be possible without the industry’s continued support and participation, and highlights the potential to develop practical, proportional industry-led steps to reducing entanglement risks. The SEA project continues to receive a massively positive response from the Scottish inshore creel fishing community, and it is crucial that we and the public appreciate these efforts and recognise that fishers are the solution to this issue, not the problem.

If you are a fisherman and you encounter an animal entangled in your gear, please report this to SEA as soon as possible by contacting the team on 01463 246048, 07393 798153 or at entanglement@sac.co.uk. Help and advice on how to deal with these situations is available and we will be able to dispatch a response team if needed. Your help in recording these incidents would be very much appreciated and any information you share will be treated positively, sensitively and confidentially. 

Presentations from the Scottish Fishermen’s Organisation and the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation featured on day one, and covered topics including the importance of industry and stakeholder-led research and engagement. Methods of monitoring by-catch and entanglement using satellites, autonomous underwater vehicles, hydrophones, apps and other electronic methods were also discussed at length, as were possible mitigation measures using light, sounds, gear modifications and electric barriers. Animal biology and behaviours in relation to bycatch and entanglement, and work in challenging traditional fishing conventions were also hot topics. These in turn inspired some very meaningful and enlightening debates especially on day two, when attendees were split into their respective groups (fishers, researchers, policy makers etc.) to discuss the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats as they perceived them, associated with each of the proposed bycatch and entanglement monitoring and mitigation options.

Bally Philp of the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation (SCFF), a partner in the SEA project, highlights the industry’s concern over and willingness to work towards solutions to marine animal entanglement. I also presented on the work of SEA and the invaluable input we’ve received to this work so far from the Scottish creel fishing industry. We were also lucky to hear from Tim Werner from the New England Aquarium in Boston, USA.  Tim is a marine zoologist, fisheries scientist and conservation biologist whose research currently focusses on identifying bycatch solutions for marine wildlife that also support the livelihoods of fishermen and coastal communities. He spent a lot of time with the fishermen in attendance, sharing his experiences and advice in entanglement mitigation including what has and hasn’t worked in the USA, and what measures might be applicable in the UK.

The event was summed up by one Scottish fisherman who commented that “We had two days of workshops, presentations and scientists from all over the world keen to engage with fishermen to find solutions to things like entanglements in nets and ropes. We learned loads, I think they did too, we even attended a by-caught porpoise necropsy…..It was a brilliant trip and experience. Some species are prone to get entangled in nets, others in ropes. There are a few species in the world that are critically endangered and there is some real urgency to find solutions and mitigations. Plenty work to be done, but the good news is that there is plenty that can be done…and we may even have come up with some good ideas!”

Below are some just some of the tweets about the workshop which highlight some of the challenges and goals in marine animal bycatch and entanglement monitoring and mitigation. Follow the hashtag #HaulingUpSolutions to read more.

If you are involved in the Scottish creel fishing industry would like to learn more about the Scottish Entanglement Alliance and/or get involved in this work, please contact me (Ellie) at entanglement@sac.co.uk or call 01463 246048. Any information you share will be treated positively, sensitively and confidentially.

Two weeks ago the Scottish contingent of the UK Large Whale Disentanglement Team (LWDT) met in Findhorn for a three-day refresher training course. The team, established in 2007 by British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) currently has approximately 20 individuals trained across four levels, and is the only team of its kind in Europe. The team meets throughout the year to practice skills in boat handling, equipment use, and different entanglement scenarios, to ensure that we are able to respond as quickly, efficiently and safely as possible to reports of whales and other large marine animals tangled in fishing gear. The team is on standby 24/7 and is  currently deployed in the Forth following reports from a concerned commercial fisherman about a free-swimming humpback whale potentially entangled in rope.

The team consists of a mix of men and women across the country who are all volunteers and come from a range of backgrounds. Our team leaders Simon and Boonie have, between them, decades of experience working at sea as a skipper and offshore rope access technician. Both are also crew members with the Moray Inshore Rescue Organisation (MIRO). The other team members include a mechanic, a mechanical engineer, an ex-fisherman, a skipper, a commercial diver, a marine ecologist, a teacher, a tree surgeon and a firefighter, all of whom bring a unique set of skills and practical ability to the team.   The weekend training consisted of a mix of classroom and boat-based sessions, and as always the training pushed us both mentally and physically, and tested our ability to work as a team in challenging conditions to ensure that in a real-life entanglement scenario, we were able to keep our crew safe, free the animal in distress, and recover and return the entangling gear with minimal damage.

The weekend began with a classroom-based session, to review the most recent entanglement cases, walk through different potential entanglement response scenarios on dry land, and give everyone a chance to discuss their strengths, weaknesses and what they’d like to achieve from the training. This was also an opportunity to review and re-familiarise ourselves with the boat (a specially fabricated RIB) and the disentanglement kit, as it is vital that each team member is fully aware of and capable of assembling, maintaining and using this.

The LWDT kit consists of a series of lines, poles and attachments (for fixing knives to depending on the entangling gear), kegging buoys, knives and other cutting tools, and PPE.  This kit also includes a telemetry buoy which can be attached to an animal to track it’s movements if a disentanglement cannot be completed in one day or for example, has to be abandoned due to light and/or sea conditions. 

Once out on the water for the remainder of the weekend, we were well and truly put through our paces! among other things such as practising boat and tiller handling, we worked on perfecting a technique for disentangling free-swimming large whales that was first developed in 1984 in Cape Cod. The technique is known as ‘kegging’ and is a modification of a practise used by 19th century whalers who would attach kegs (barrels or logs) to the harpoon line in order to slow the whale down. BDMLR now utilise a similar technique for entangled free swimming large whales at risk from potentially life threatening entanglements, by attaching a control line to an existing line tailing from an entangled animal, which allows responders to safely work with and around the animal. Obviously we can’t train using live entangled animals (!) and so we practise using a RIB trailing lines and/or netting to simulate the types of gear an entangled animal may be caught in and towing. The RIB skipper will then manoeuvre at a speed similar to that of a free-swimming whale, and in a way a distressed animal may move through the water. It is then up to the team, spread across two boats (one with the kegging and cutting team of three, and one with the support team of three whose job it is to keep pace with the animal and communicate and support the cutting team by prepping kit.

As a partner in the SEA project, a hot topic of conversation at this training meet was how the LWDT team can improve their relationship with the Scottish fishing community, to encourage better reporting of entanglements, positively engage with and involve fishers, and start to build a network of people around the coast capable of  responding to and assisting in disentanglement attempts. The LWDT is on call 24/7 but the geography of Scotland can be a limiting factor to the team getting to various locations quickly, and so the more people we can have around the coast able to assist in a response who have access to boats, additional kit that might be useful, and with the skills that fishermen have (local knowledge, navigation and boat handling skills, the ability to think on their feet, work efficiently in challenging conditions, and practically minded) the better. By developing a network with fishermen at the heart of it, we hope that as a team the LWDT can facilitate better  knowledge exchange, and the development of solid trusting relationships with the Scottish fishing community based on mutual interest and respect.

It is the fishermen are out on the water all the time, they know their gear and their waters better than anyone else, and they also know well and care very much about the marine life they work alongside, and we rely on them for reports of entanglements. We have already learned a huge amount from Scottish fishermen regarding entanglements, for example please see previous blog post ‘Encountering a whale entanglement – a Fisherman’s story’ which is a great example of the invaluable ways in which fishermen are already assisting in the rescue of large whales around the Scottish coast.

SEA do not recommend that fishermen attempt to disentangle animals themselves. Whales in distress are very powerful and dangerous animals, capable of doing significant damage to boats, and threatening lives. Our LWDT have had the appropriate training and carry the necessary PPE to tackle these. However fishermen can and do provide vital assistance to rescue attempts for example by tracking entangled animals, offering advice and local knowledge, moving and lifting fishing gear, and documenting the process with photos and video footage. If you are a fisherman and you encounter a marine animal entanglement while at sea in your or another’s gear, please call this in to the Scottish Entanglement Alliance and BDMLR’s Large Whale Disentanglement Team on 01463 798153, or 07393 798153 who will be able to offer any assistance that is requested and required. Any information you share will be treated positively, sensitively and in confidence.