
How one man died so a whale might live - pmcpinto
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jun/20/how-one-man-died-so-a-whale-might-live
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dghughes
This is in my area of the world The Maritimes in Canada. I think it's
important to note (as of Sept 2017) of the thirteen, not seven, whales that
died two were tangled in fishing gear but the other eleven were killed either
by blunt force trauma or it was inconclusive.

Blunt force trauma is from a ship running into the whale. Operators of cruise
ships, oil tankers, ore barges, shipping container ships and other large
vessels wouldn't even know they hit anything. This area has a large amount of
smaller fishing vessels, some medium but many large ships are heading to or
from the Great Lakes region via the St. Lawrence river. South of Nova Scotia
would see ship traffic heading to busy large ports on the US east coast. The
Bay of Fundy is busy too with oil tankers, cruise ships, high speed ferry
boat, various types of fishing vessels.

I can probably speak for most in my region when I say last summer (2017) it
felt like 'suddenly whales!'. The occasional dead whale would wash ashore and
often it was deemed natural causes but last year it seemed every other day
there was news of a dead whale. And not just any whale but a Right whale.

There isn't any one solution it's not only fishermen or only tankers and
cruise ships. Fishermen this year have heavy restrictions on rope size for
traps and nets. And fishermen are now told to immediately stop fishing when a
whale is near, and I mean immediately with only a few minutes notice. Cruise
ships have been told to use idle speed in areas where whales have been
reported, many cruise ships just cancel visits turn around and go somewhere
else.

It's been bad for the local economy with fishermen not able to fish during
their designated season of eight weeks, closures for whales doesn't extend the
season. The loss of thousands of cruise ship passengers to small town ports
also has a big impact for small business who make or break during a few months
of the summer.

Here is a DFO report about the incidents PDF [http://www.cwhc-
rcsf.ca/right_whales.php](http://www.cwhc-rcsf.ca/right_whales.php)

~~~
reureu
I think it's starting to feel like "suddenly whales!" in the SF Bay Area this
year too. We've had something like 8 dead whales wash up in the past month or
two, and many are thought to have died from boat strikes. There was an article
in Wired a few weeks ago about the dead whales in SF:
[https://www.wired.com/story/the-messy-malodorous-mystery-
of-...](https://www.wired.com/story/the-messy-malodorous-mystery-of-the-
dead-60-foot-whale/)

------
RangerScience
Joe Howlett worked saving whales caught in fishing lines. Immediately after
making a second cut (of fishing lines), the whale struck the kodiak with its
fluke, which did something to Joe that killed him.

It is unclear from the article whether that second cut freed the whale, or
what the whale was attempting to do with its fluke, and the article does not
list a cause of death.

The title is answered in the two paragraphs beginning with "Joe took his place
at the bow, standing ready with his gaff"

~~~
pvaldes
Whales and, dolphins also, are muscular animals that can kick really hard. The
whale probably just wanted to dive, lowered the body, and put the head
vertical. The tail follows and raises quickly in the air in this case before
the dive.

> "The tail struck Howlett with roughly a tonne of force"

[https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/campobello-
whal...](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/campobello-whale-rescue-
funding-1.4287869)

