By GB News (World News) | Created at 2025-01-31 14:29:43 | Updated at 2025-01-31 16:43:41
2 hours ago
A humpback whale has been successfully freed after becoming entangled in rope at a salmon farm off the Isle of Skye for 28 hours.
The marine mammal was discovered at Invertote salmon farm early Thursday morning, with rope wrapped multiple times around its head and left fin.
British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) mobilised its large whale disentanglement team from across the UK to carry out the complex rescue operation. The exhausted whale was finally freed on Friday afternoon, with rescuers continuing to monitor its movements.
A member of the public first spotted the distressed whale at around 8.30am on Thursday and alerted BDMLR. The charity reported the whale had become "visibly entangled in rope" and was "unable to swim freely."
The whale was stranded
Anthony Rigell/PA Wire
A whale was trapped in Loch Fyne in Otter Ferry
Getty
Small inflatable boats provided by Organic Sea Harvest allowed the rescue team to get close to the whale during the "potentially risky" operation.
During the rescue, it emerged the whale had been previously entangled and was carrying old ropes not used by the salmon farm.
These existing ropes had caught on the farm moorings as the whale swam past, OSH explained.
BDMLR teams were able to free the whale not only from the farm equipment but also remove the old ropes it had been carrying.
This marks the second successful rescue for BDMLR's large whale disentanglement team in recent months, following their freeing of another humpback whale caught in creel ropes in Loch Fyne last November.
However, not all whale entanglements in Scottish waters have such positive outcomes. A humpback whale found dead in a Highland loch in May 2023 likely perished after becoming caught in creel fishing lines, according to experts.
Similar fatalities have been recorded in East Lothian and Caithness following entanglements with fishing gear.These incidents can involve active fishing equipment or "ghost gear" - abandoned ropes and nets from fishing boats.
In a stark example from 2019, a sperm whale that died on the Isle of Harris was found with a 100kg "litter ball" of fishing nets, rope and plastic waste in its stomach.
