Did Humpback Whale Die After Becoming Entangled in Fishing Gear?

An adolescent humpback whale has been found washed up dead on a beach in Scotland.

The whale may have died after getting tangled up in creel fishing gear, experts say, as reported by the BBC.

The whale was found at Loch Fleet on Wednesday, on Scotland's east Sutherland coast, and was identified by the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) as a juvenile female humpback whale.

Pictures of the whale were shared by the owner of Highland Croft, a local bed and breakfast, on the accommodation's Facebook page.

"After speaking to the biologists who were dissecting the body this afternoon, it is a young female who drowned after getting entangled in a fishing net—the most common cause of death in humpbacks. Injuries to her tail show that she had gotten entangled before and managed to escape, but sadly yesterday she didn't," they wrote.

"Though this is really sad, I took the children before school to see it. How often do you get the opportunity, after all. And hopefully the encounter will make us appreciate the seas and all their wonderful creatures even more."

Humpback whales can grow to around 60 feet long and are found in non-equatorial waters around the world.

Whales strandings occur for a variety of reasons, including illness, becoming disorientated by approaching the shore too closely, being struck by a marine vessel, from predation from animals like orcas, or from becoming entangled in plastic pollution.

"Strandings do occur for natural reasons—any whale that dies at sea might wash up on shore," Patrick Miller, a professor at the School of Biology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, previously told Newsweek.

"As there are increasingly more humpback whales off the east coast of the U.S. (which is good news), an increased number of strandings for natural reasons would be expected. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, many of the stranded whales, around 40 percent, had evidence of a direct human interaction with ship collision or entanglement in fishing gear. Such interactions are clearly harmful to animals, and the high rate of association with those interactions should therefore be an ongoing focus of attention," he said.

A spokeswoman for the SMASS said it appeared as if the whale had died due to entanglement in creel lines, based on their initial examination.

Creel fishing is a form of fishing that often occurs off the Scottish coast, involving dropping baited creel boxes to capture crustaceans on the seabed, connected to a floating buoy on the surface via rope.

Further samples of the whale's carcass may help to shed more light on the cause of the whale's death.

According to a BBC report, the Scottish Highland Council said that the body may wash back out to sea, as it was located in a tidal zone. If the whale is smaller than 82 feet, the Highland Council is responsible for its disposal if it does not wash away, and may be buried on the beach or taken to a landfill. Alternatively, if the whale is larger than 82 feet, it is classed as a "royal fish", meaning that on behalf of the Crown, the Scottish government has first claim on the carcass.

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