Ladywildlifes News 27

News Page 27

Fishing net entangles and kills whales

Juvenile humpback had been entangled in gill net, says stranding team.

Virginia Beach, A juvenile humpback whale was towed to the beach near sand bridge on Tuesday after being trapped and killed in a fishing net less than 500 yards from the beach. It was the third humpback in as many days to die as a result of interaction with fishing gear or boats along the Southeast Coast, with the likelihood that a fourth was afloat on the ocean east of Cape Henry.

Staff and volunteers of the Virginia Marine Science Museum Stranding Team, with help from a local fisherman, towed the 30 foot animal to shore near Near Little Island Park and conducted a lengthy examination before burying it deep in the sand. The first humpback whale occurred off Myrtle Beach S.C. on Sunday. The creature had been both entangled in a net and struck by a boat, officials said. The second , also with net markings died off Emerald Isle, N.C. on Monday.

The deaths underscore the need for modifications of fishing nets that would allow whales and other marine animals to break through when they're caught, said Susan Barco, a stranding tam research scientist. "We want fishermen to be able to fish and whales to be able to live and, believe me, so do fishermen,,,," Barco told a group of concerned teenage girls who had come to watch.

A beach front resident spotted the whale Monday afternoon and realized that is wasn't moving. A team from the museum went out by boat Monday night and found that the animal. wrapped in a gill net, had died. Plans were made to bring it ashore on Tuesday. Although their numbers have begun to grow, humpbacks are endangered. In winter when older whales migrate south to mate and spawn, immature ones increasingly populate the southern coastline, where they feed on schooling fish.

"It was probably making a pretty good living out there," said Bill McLennan, a member of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington's Stranding team who had dealt with the other two whale deaths.. But this is the first time that they're o their own out there," he said, "and it's a pretty high mortality period." Barco said the creature had broken through the net, its head framed by the float line above and lead line below. Then, as evidence of a struggle, its flukes were wrapped several times in the netting...

"it's looks like he was cut out of the net and left to drift," Barco said,. The wale apparently drifted until the dragging net caught on the anchor of another gill net, where it was found. The massive black animal with marble like white swirls on it face lay on the beach, one of its eyes still partly open. "That is a beautiful, beautiful animal," Said Buddy Redfearn, a stranding team volunteer. "Think of its creation, and how it grew and where it's been. It's a marvel."