Humpback Whale Euthanized on an Oregon Beach After Crab Line Entanglement
On Saturday, responders made the "very difficult decision" to euthanize a three-year-old female humpback whale that had stranded on the beach at Yachats, Oregon. The whale had been entangled in crab line, and its fate made international news.
"Given the state of the whale’s health and the sea state, and the fact that it’s extremely unlikely that it would be able to survive another day on the beach, we decided jointly that euthanasia is the best," said Jim Rice, a scientist with Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute, speaking to KOIN News.
Multiple rescue attempts were made, including improvised but unsuccessful efforts by members of the general public; one widely-circulated video suggests that some bystanders tied a thin rope to its tail and tried to pull it by hand. Fish and wildlife officials attempted to discourage citizens from approaching the whale, given the risk to life if it should roll in the surf (and the federal laws that limit how close people can get to marine mammals). Professional efforts using block and tackle were also unsuccessful.
The outcome was unusually visible, but the phenomenon is common. First responders found the whale entangled in crab pot gear, and officials say that it had Oregon license tags on it. Last year, there were four known whale entanglements linked to Oregon commercial crab gear, a record high. When including entanglements off California and Washington, the total rises to 36 for 2024.
Whale entanglement is a recurring side effect of pot fisheries for crab and lobster. The gear for these fisheries includes a buoy-suspended retrieval line that extends the full depth of the water column; these lines periodically ensnare whales, and state-mandated license tags on the lines are intended to aid in attribution and enforcement.
Authorities in Oregon have previously asked crabbers to limit risk to whales by following best practices, which include:
- Refraining from setting gear near known whale feeding spots
- Removing unused or derelict gear promptly, and reporting unrecovered gear
- Using the minimum scope possible for buoy lines
- Ensuring a minimum of line floating on the surface
Alternative gear exists in the form of high-tech "ropeless" retrieval systems, but these acoustic-release devices would add tens of thousands of dollars to the equipment cost for a crab or lobster boat, and have not yet gained a commercial foothold. This year, California's Fish and Game Commission is enlarging a pilot program for crabbers to try out the new "on-demand" gear, a pioneering trial on the West Coast.
The idea on trial in California is to set up a separate season for "ropeless" gear only, giving fishermen a financial incentive to try it out. The 2024 edition gave 19 fishermen an opportunity to test the equipment, and positive reports came back: they reported a 98 percent-plus success rate for the new retrieval gear, and $1.5 million in new revenue from fishing during a normally-closed season.
"The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission must adopt stronger conservation measures to reduce whale entanglements in the Oregon Dungeness crab fishery and incentivize the use of whale-safe pop-up fishing gear, which keeps the lines and buoys on the seafloor until fishermen are ready to retrieve the gear," Oceana Pacific Campaign Director and Senior Scientist Ben Enticknap told media in a statement.
Top image: Grid Arendal / CC BY SA 2.0