Juvenile humpback whale entanglement, Annat Bay, April 2024

Last weekend we had a report of a stranding in Annat Bay on the Scoraig peninsula. A fisherman had reported it to @ullapoolseasavers earlier in the day, before they headed out to confirm the animal as juvenile male humpback whale.

Members of the SMASS team headed out to the site of the stranding, aided by @ullapoolseasavers , @cal_major and @jamesappletonphotography. to investigate the cause of death and collect samples for further investigation which will build a better picture of how this animal lived and died.

This whale had several lesions indicative of chronic entanglement which is one of the prominent threats to baleen whales worldwide. With no material left on the whale we cannot ascertain the origin of the entanglement, but the lesions encircling the whale suggest rope which could come from static fisheries, fish farms or discarded “ghost” gear. Given the migratory nature of humpbacks, this entanglement could have occurred anywhere in our oceans which really highlights the importance of good, global fisheries management.

In Scotland, there is strong effort to work towards solutions across disciplines with the creel sector really taking the initiative on this and working together with scientists and engineers to come up with gear alternatives. The Scottish Entanglement Alliance (@tangly_seas) brings together scientists, fishing industry representatives and engineers to collaboratively work on this issue to reduce, and hopefully even eliminate the risk of entanglement.

As always, a huge thank you to everyone who helped out during this event. This was a difficult location to get to but with the generous help of @ullapoolseasavers, we were able to get the team and our gear out to this humpback. Their invaluable help along with Cal and James allowed us to collect important samples. The beautiful and powerful images used here are by the talented @jamesappletonphotography