Expert Not Hopeful on Tangled Whale’s Chances
A local whale expert doesn’t hold out much hope for the rope entangled whale he spotted in Bermuda waters last week.
Only days after a dead baby whale was found in Bermuda waters, the rope entangled whale was spotted by Mr. Andrew Stevenson of the Whale Research Project.
Mr. Stevenson went back out in the waters for around 15 hours on Sunday, and while not finding any sign of the rope tangled whale, he did find a chunk of whale blubber with the edges serrated as if bitten by sharks.
He said it was hard determine where the blubber came from, possibly from either the dead baby sperm whale or perhaps the entrapped whale. As the blubber was fresh and had no odor, Mr. Stevenson has his doubts it was from the dead baby whale found days ago in Bermuda.
Whale severely caught in polypropylene rope, with pectoral fins were pinned to the side. Photo by Andrew Stevenson
Mr Stevenson and his group didn’t spot the entangled whale despite being on the water all day Sunday. He says he thinks that his group should have had a good chance of seeing the whale if it was still entangled, but goes onto explain Humpback whales are incredibly tough creatures and can last a long time with an entanglement.
Mr Stevenson showed the pictures to whale experts abroad, and said they weren’t very optimistic about the whale’s chance of survival as the tangle was so severe.
Is the entangled whale is dead or alive? Mr Stevenson says:
Perhaps the blubber is from the entangled whale. Sharks are going to be around a struggling, bleeding whale pretty quickly. So… you can draw your own conclusions.
Andrew Stevenson is the lead researcher behind the documentary “Where the Whales Sing”. The film debuted to a sold out audience at the Bermuda International Film Festival on March 11.
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Category: All, Environment
