Question Period Note: Entangled Humpback Whales

• The Marine Mammal Response Program supports the response to incidents involving marine mammals and sea turtles in distress across Canada, in collaboration with our partners.
• We have made substantial investments over the past several years to support safe and timely response to incidents, including $1 million annually to support Canadian response experts and $4.5 million to build Canada’s response capacity on all three coasts.
• On December 20, 2020, DFO received a report of an entangled humpback whale near Grand Manan, NB.
• DFO Conservation and Protection and the Campobello Whale Rescue Team were able to respond quickly and successfully disentangled the whale.

• The Marine Mammal Response Program (MMRP) works with partners to track and respond to marine mammal entanglements, strandings (dead and live), ship strikes, and other threats; quantify threats affecting marine mammal species, with a special focus on species assessed as at risk; provide data and information to support Species at Risk recovery planning initiatives, mitigation options, and policy development.
• The Department is working with marine mammal response partners to ensure there is long-term capacity to respond to marine mammal incidents, such as disentanglements, and to develop capacity within Indigenous communities to provide response activities under the program.
• With increased funding, we were able to address gaps in national coordination, consistent service delivery, standardized protocols, central data collection, sharing of best practices, and technological innovations.
• During the 2020 season, there were seven live entangled humpback cases on the Pacific Coast. The DFO marine mammal response team responded to all incidents. Two were confirmed free of gear.
• An entangled humpback whale was observed along the coast of Quebec on July 26, 2020. DFO and partners worked together to attempt to relocate and track the whale, but it was not resighted.

None