New research shows that removing some debris is better than doing nothing
Whales that get tangled up in fishing lines and other gear can be stuck towing it around for months or years. And it’s not pleasant. Those lines can cut into the mammals’ flesh. Some whales will die from their injuries. But how does it actually feel to be carrying all that trash around? Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, or WHOI, on the Massachusetts coast wanted to know what kind of weight or pull it exerted. They found that heavy traps and bulky buoys cause a whale to feel much more “drag” than will loose ropes. And it can tire them out.
The researchers’ interest had been piqued by a chance encounter with a two-year-old whale on Christmas Day in 2010. The young North Atlantic right whale was wrapped in fishing lines. It wasn’t easy, but the team eventually freed her of most of the debris. They were not in time, however. The whale was injured, exhausted and “so, so, so thin,” says Julie van der Hoop. She works at WHOI as a whale researcher. Freed of the gear, the whale dove deep and swam away. “Unfortunately, she didn’t survive,” van der Hoop says. The whale’s body washed ashore some time later in Florida.
Keep reading: https://student.societyforscience.org/article/what-drag-fishing-gear%E2%80%99s-effects-whales
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