Entangled right whale has P.E.I. fishermen's group on alert as lobster season nears its end

The P.E.I. Fishermen's Association says it is closely monitoring the situation after Fisheries and Oceans Canada restricted a fishing area off P.E.I. waters due to the detection of an entangled North Atlantic right whale very close to the Island's coast.

DFO issued a notice to fishers Tuesday that included a large area of Lobster Fishing Area 24 that lies off Naufrage, near P.E.I.'s northeastern tip.

The restriction came after officials spotted a juvenile right whale, identified as whale number 5132, entangled in the Gulf of St. Lawrence near Morell, P.E.I., on Monday.

Melanie Giffin, a marine biologist with the P.E.I. Fishermen's Association, said the group is paying close attention to DFO's online whale tracking tools.

"We keep an eye on where it's going, keep harvesters up to date, and harvesters are working together to figure out and make sure they understand where they can and can't go," Giffin told CBC's Island Morning Wednesday.

She added that the area won't reopen for at least seven days, and the spring lobster season is ending on June 25 anyway. Still, the association is watching for other potential closures to keep fishers informed.

About 75 boats affected

Boats fishing in the affected areas off Naufrage that are deeper than 20 fathoms, or around 36 metres, need to have all their equipment out of the water by Sunday, June 22, at 5 p.m. AT.

Giffin estimated that about 75 boats fishing off Naufrage would be affected, with some others in the Morell and North Lake areas also likely impacted.

However, some of the affected area is shallower than 20 fathoms, so boats with lobster traps set there can continue to harvest as long as they have whale-safe gear to deploy. They would just have to remove a buoy line to reduce the chance of the whale becoming entangled.

Giffin said about 800 members of the P.E.I. Fishermen's Association have that kind of gear, also known as low breaking strength gear, which is designed to release under pressure of more than 1,700 pounds or 771 kilograms.

She added the closure does not extend all the way to shore, and the closure stops at around the 10-fathom line, or 18.3 metres.

"So anybody fishing inside of 10 fathoms can continue to fish as normal. They don't need the whale-safe gear. They can fish as normal," she said. "Normally, at this time of the year, the fishers start to move their gear into shallower water anyway."

Some fishermen are choosing to end their season early this year given the restrictions and the windy weather forecast for this weekend. 

Ian MacKinnon, who fishes out of Naufrage Harbour, said he'll land his traps on Friday. He said it's lucky for harvesters in the area that the restrictions are coming late in the season when catches typically begin to slow down.

"For the season, I'm done. I'll take my lumps as I can, I guess, and come back here next year and hopefully this never happens again," MacKinnon said.  

"It couldn't have come at a better time, I guess. If it would've happened May 19, we would've been scrambling, complaining a lot harder…. We would've been missing out on a lot of fish." 

2nd closure

This is the second closure in less than a week for P.E.I. boats. Last Friday, boats based off the northwestern point of P.E.I. were told to take their gear out of the water for 15 days when an earlier DFO notice affected a deeper fishing area where they had set traps.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada's website says there are only 372 North American right whales remaining in the world's oceans.

Whales like the one spotted off P.E.I. on Monday are prone to being hit by large ships and becoming entangled in fishing gear, although Canada has brought in stringent rules for mariners to prevent such incidents.

Brett Gilchrist, director of natural programs with DFO, said the goal is to locate whale number 5132 again in order to launch an operation to disentangle it. 

"It could be in some distress; it could just be looking for food. It's an important sign that we continue to see the whale," Gilchrist said. 

"It has in the past been identified as a serious injury…. We're hoping that this whale doesn't succumb to its entanglement injuries, but again it's a good sign that we've seen it multiple times this season."