Officials from the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans are investigating after a Humpback Whale, Megaptera novaeangliae, was found dead on a beach in British Columbia this week. The Whale was spotted by a group of kayakers on a beach in the Bunsby Islands, to the northwest of Vancouver Island, and is in an advanced state of decomposition, suggesting it has been dead for about a month. The animal appears to have become entangled in ropes attached to Crab traps, with a number of such traps still attached to it. Such traps are thought to be particularly dangerous to Whales, as the trap is attached to a float by a vertical rope, which they apparently either do not see or mistake for something non-hazardous such as Kelp.
The decomposing body of a Humpback Whale, Megaptera novaeangliae, found in the Bunsby Islands, British Columbia, this week. Tracy Gosselin/CBC.
Humpback Whales were nearly exterminated by commercial Whaling in the first part of the twentieth century. The species has been protected since 1946, and in recent years their population has appeared to be recovering in many areas, now being seen as being of Least Concern under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. These Whales are becoming increasingly common in waters around the world, but are also increasingly often becoming entangled in fishing tackle, which is not generally designed with Whales in mind. The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans report that about 15-25 Whales become entangled in fishing tackle in Canadian waters each year.
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