Scots fishermen rescue humpback whale entangled in rope off Skye coast

Two Scots fishermen rescued a humpback whale which they found entangled in rope off the coast of Skye.

The two creel fishermen had been fishing in the southern area of the coast on Sunday when a report of the entangled marine animal was received.

Both fishermen had been trained by the Scottish Entanglement Alliance (SEA), and so were able to respond.

On arrival at the scene, they carried out a full assessment and found the whale was anchored by a single rope around its tail.

With the support of SEA colleagues the fishermen proceeded to haul the creel fleet, successfully disentangling the whale and ensuring it was free of all rope.

The fishermen were able to re-set the fleet of creels after untangling the mammal.

It comes after another humpback whale became tangled in rope off the coast of Skye on last month.

British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) was alerted to the incident, near Rigg on January 10.

A humpback whale has become entangled in rope off the Isle of Skye. Anthony Rigell/BDMLR

Isle of Skye salmon farm Organic Sea Harvest confirmed it had suspended operations while its own team worked to free the whale.

In November, the BDMLR disentanglement team freed another humpback that had become stuck in creel ropes in Loch Fyne.

Ellie MacLennan, SEA project coordinator at the University of Glasgow, said the incident was a “great example” of the important fishermen play in 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 said.

“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.”