A BC Ferries passenger called Fisheries & Oceans this week to report a Humpback whale caught up in fishing gear.
Trailing more than 50 meters of line, the whale was eventually spotted off Texada Island and fisheries began the task of freeing the distressed mammal.
Over the last few years there have been hundreds of humpbacks travelling the Salish Sea and sadly entanglements are all to common.
Earlier this year, and near San Juan Island, a humpback calf was spotted with its mother.
Typically humpbacks are born in the warmer waters of Mexico & the Hawaiian Islands and then return to the northwest in the fall to feed on the smaller fish & crustaceans.