The team learned of the floating whale on Thursday afternoon, which was last seen near Lawlor Island in the Eastern Passage, NS But recovery efforts are hampered by the size of the whale and the makeup of Halifax Harbor, said Tonya Wimmer, executive director of MARS. He said it is difficult to bring heavy equipment into the harbor that is large enough to take the whale, which is more than eight meters long, and is neither an adult nor a baby. “Usually in other places, the animal either goes ashore, or we can bring it ashore to like a local beach or maybe a more isolated area where we can still bring heavy equipment there because it’s big,” he said. Wimmer. A member of the Marine Wildlife Response Society collects underwater footage of the blowfish in Halifax Harbour. (Marine Animal Response Society) On Friday, MARS, with the help of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, attempted to bring the whale to shore. “The hard thing on Friday was figuring out where we could take it, that we could also access it with equipment,” Wimmer said. He said performing autopsies is critical because they help people understand when human activities play a role in harming or killing animals. Mariner Rob Gosse helps a MARS member collect images and samples from the whale. (Marine Animal Response Society) He said ocean animals have been entangled with gear or hit by boats in the past. Some were also very thin, indicating that they were not eating enough. “For these animals, anything beyond a natural cause of death is a concern because usually, that’s indicative of some of the things that we might be doing in the ocean. And that’s not, you know, just an individual whale type of thing,” said the Wimmer. The agency is asking the public to report any sightings of the whale to its hotline at 1-866-567-6277.
