A humpback whale breaching in the distance brought joy to a Friday morning charter off San Diego – until it became evident that the whale was severely entangled.
Domenic Biagini, who runs Gone Whale Watching San Diego, began a Friday night Facebook post under the title, “Heartbreak on Valentine’s Day,” and described what played out as “the most heart-wrenching day in our company’s short history.”
The distressed whale breached multiple times in an apparent effort to shake free of a gillnet that had become wrapped around much of its body, including the mouth area.
Commercial-fishing gillnets are sometimes referred to as “ghost nets” because they’re largely invisible and kill indiscriminately.
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Biagini’s encounter began in late morning. He notified SeaWorld and a disentanglement team arrived and spent several hours hoping for an opportunity to either cut the netting or attach a buoy so the whale would be easier to locate on Saturday.
The whale was too active to safely approach, however, and there was no fishing line trailing the mammal, so the team could not attach buoys.
Whale-watching companies throughout Southern California have been notified and crews will be on the lookout throughout the busy Presidents Day weekend. A NOAA-trained disentanglement team is on standby in case the whale is spotted.
Biagini, a renowned wildlife photographer whose charter business opened last September, told For The Win Outdoors that the SeaWorld effort ended in late afternoon “when the whale was still blasting north around Del Mar.”
It’s not clear where the whale became entangled, or if that occurred in U.S. waters. (Gillnets are allowed off California, but only away from the coast and under certain restrictions.)
But in an Instagram Post Biagini wrote: “I don’t have the words to describe the heartbreak, but I do want to tell you a little more about these images. This is a Humpback Whale severely entangled in drift/ghost gillnet: a barbaric method of commercial fishing that should not exist.
“These lines are set up constantly around San Diego, oftentimes in some of the most critical areas for marine mammals. It’s maddening to see, and its effects on our local wildlife are severely underreported.”
–Images are courtesy of Domenic Biagini