A video of an encounter with a live entangled Northern Bottlenose whale in the Gully, Nova Scotia, Canada, August 21, 1999.

• Main Author: Whitehead Lab
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Zenodo 1999
• Subjects: northern bottlenose whale; Entanglement; The Gully Marine Protected Area; Fisheries interactions; Hyperoodon ampullatus; Whale; Canada; The Gully; The Beak; hyperoodon ampullatus; Northern bottlenose whale
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4606894; https://zenodo.org/record/4606894

The video documents an encounter with a young northern bottlenose whale which was resting at the surface with a monofilament fishing line entangled in multiple wraps around the beak and across the blowhole and left side of the melon. The encounter occurred during research in the Gully by Dalhousie University researchers on August 21, 1999 in the early evening (7pm local time). The animal appears to be struggling to stay at the surface and after a rescue attempt later dives and disappears. Crew onboard included Hal Whitehead, Richard Connor, Jakobina Arch, Jennifer Jackson, Christina Scarfe and Amanda Schweizer. Minute 1:34 Head and beak clearly entangled by wrapping line, left side scar not apparent on right side. Minute 3:14 Line wraps up from left side of beak across melon just forward of the blowhole and around the body. Minute 4:12 Close up of the beak and head show wrapping of the line on the left side. Minute 4:35 Video goes black while preparations are made to launch disentanglement efforts. Minute 6:30 Video returns and small dinghy is in the water with two crew that attempt to disentangle the animal. Minute 9:25 Whale arches and dives and does not return to surface. : {"references": ["Feyrer, Laura Joan, Madison Stewart, Jasmine Yeung, Colette Soulier, and Hal Whitehead. \"Origin and persistence of markings in a long-term photo-identification dataset reveal the threat of entanglement for endangered northern bottlenose whales (Hyperoodon ampullatus).\" Frontiers in Marine Science 8 (2021): 349."]}