Large whale disentanglement

Led by James Powell, SR3
Collaborators include Cascadia Research Collective, NOAA Fisheries, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, SeaDoc Society, and The Whale Museum

This project surveys for and documents large whales like humpbacks and gray whales that are entangled with fishing gear. Teams are trained to thoroughly document the entanglement and remove the gear. Like with the pinniped disentanglement project, detailed data on gear type is collected so that fishing practices can ultimately be modified to prevent this problem, which is not only a serious animal welfare issue, but also a population health concern in some species.