TWO fishermen have rescued a humpback whale which was entangled in rope off the coast of Skye.
The pair of creel fishermen were fishing in the southern area off the coast of the Scottish island when they received a report of an entangled marine animal on Sunday.
Both the fishermen were trained by the Scottish Entanglement Alliance (SEA) so were able to attend and help the entrapped whale.
Once the pair arrived, they carried out a full assessment and found the whale was anchored by a single rope around its tail.
Supported by SEA colleagues the fishermen proceeded to haul the creel fleet and successfully disentangling the whale and were able to make sure it was free of all rope.
Once the whale was freed the pair were able to re-set the fleet of creels.
Last month another humpback whale had to be rescued as it got entangled off the Isle of Skye when it got entangled in a rope near a salmon farm.
Ellie MacLennan, SEA project coordinator at the University of Glasgow, said the incident on Sunday was a “great example” of the important fishermen play in entanglement mitigation.
“This whale was entangled in the rope between creels. As is standard in most creel gear this rope was buoyant and would have formed loops in the water which entangled the whale,” she told STV News.
“The Scottish Entanglement Alliance is holding ongoing trials of sinking rope, which lies flat on the seabed in collaboration with Scottish creel fishermen.
“The use of such rope would likely have avoided this entanglement. This work shows that there may be a relatively straightforward mitigation for such entanglements in creel gear which can be led by fishermen.”
