Possible entangled whale

On June 10th, we sighted a very skinny and slow moving humpback whale on our Dolphin & Whale Cruise out of San Remo. Whales at this point in the season should be nice and well-fed, after a long summer of feeding on krill in antarctic waters. This subadult whale however, was visibly very skinny, showing its spine and ribs on its dorsal side as it surfaces the water to breathe.

Other signs of ill health was the fact that the whale moved slowly and its skin covered in whale lice. Another thing that also stood out was what appeared to be an entanglement scar in front of its dorsal fin. It wasn’t clear weather the possible filament line was still present as it would be well embedded in the whale’s skin.

Sadly very little can be done to protect this whale from its declining health as whales are difficult to track and follow on their migration, with any approaches potentially causing further stress.

Wildlife Coast Cruises works very closely with DEECA (Dept of Energy, Environmeny, and Climate Action) to report such incidences, and notifies the marine mammal response unit with any updates.

Whilst we rarely see whales in such ill health, it is a sad reminder that whales are continually being threatened by human actions, especially in terms of plastic and fishing entanglements.

Thanks to one of our citizen science photographer Barb Wallace for capturing these images.