Caribbean Compass Yachting Magazine May 2016

MAY 2016 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 28
Caribbean ECO-News
Whale Freed from FAD Off Guadeloupe
Caroline Rinaldi reports: Mouss, of the boat Camelia,
a fisherman from south Basse Terre, Guadeloupe
reported a whale tangled in a Fish Aggregating Device
(FAD) during the early afternoon of March 17th.
Renato Rinaldi of the Stranding and Distressed Marine
Mammals Network in Guadeloupe
proceeded to the area by boat.
The whale, a young female sperm
whale about five metres long, was
towing the FAD, pulling strongly
and continuing to wrap and twist
the ropes, buoys, pieces of tarpaulin
and wood around the area
between its body and its tail, causing
superficial injuries. The FAD’s
floats were breaking and starting to
sink, causing the animal to be
pulled down.
Renato, who during 20 years of
studying sperm whales acquired
training in techniques of disentanglement
and experienced the rescue
of other cetaceans, decided to
try to disentangle the whale from
the FAD. A line was taken from the
boat to the whale so the whale
could not sink. At the same time, a
new surface buoy was put on the
remaining FAD by Manolo Rinaldi,
so as not to lose the device for the
fishermen standing by.
The young whale was part of a
well-known group identified since
2000 in Guadeloupe waters. During
a few short periods when the animal
was calm, Renato was able to
remove the buoys and wraps of
rope impeding the whale’s tail. But
access to the young animal
remained difficult; it was agitated,
and two adult whales — her grandmother
and mother — remained
nearby. Many of the more than 25
wraps of rope around the whale’s
tail were very tight, making their
removal complicated and long. It
was decided to wait for the whale to
become calmer, and it was anticipated
that the rescuers might have
to remain on station with the boat
into the night or even overnight to
not lose the whale.
It therefore was decided to enlist
the government marine services to
help with the disentanglement. The
first to arrive was the marine brigade
of Gourbeyre, Basse Terre, which
RENATO RINALDI
arrived around 6:00PM. Patrice Giboire and Taylor Thiel
maintained the attachment of the animal to the boat,
while Renato continued to cut the ropes as quickly as
possible. The fire department sent rescue divers Eric
Larretche, Gilles Bissainte, Olivier Bozorgi, Brice Foy,
Manuel Laurent, Smith Rubrice and Lionel Samuel, who
arrived from Pointe-à-Pitre around 9:00PM with additional
equipment. Renato and seven helpers were able to
keep the whale close enough to the boat to accomplish
its complete disentanglement by about 11:30PM. The
young whale quickly joined the two adults that had
remained nearby throughout the ordeal.
This was the second intervention in 18 years on a
FAD entanglement by the management of Strandings
and Distressed Marine Mammals Network in
Guadeloupe waters. But the Network reports that the
cases of whales entangled with ropes and buoys have
been increasing dramatically since 2010.
—Continued on next page
A young female sperm whale was
entangled in rope and other material
from an ad hoc fish-attracting device
off Guadeloupe