Photo: Giles Laurent / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Humpback whales pass along the Oregon coast every year on their way between tropical breeding grounds and feeding areas in the north. Many feed off Oregon from late spring into fall, and they are often seen from headlands such as Yaquina Head and Cape Perpetua.
Where they come from
Photo identification of tail flukes shows that humpbacks off Oregon belong mainly to two breeding populations, one that winters off Mexico and one that winters off Central America. In 2016 the federal government revised the species’ protection under the Endangered Species Act and split humpbacks into distinct population segments. The Central America population was listed as endangered and the Mexico population as threatened. Both are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
The entanglement problem
Reports of whales tangled in fishing gear rose sharply on the West Coast in the mid-2010s, and many of the identified lines came from Dungeness crab pots. A shift in ocean conditions during the marine heat wave of those years brought whales and crab gear into the same nearshore waters at the same time.
What changed
Oregon’s crab industry and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife worked on rules to reduce the risk. Measures adopted in the following years included limits on how much gear is in the water later in the season, when whales return, rules on line and buoy marking so entangled gear can be traced, and a requirement to report lost gear. ODFW also sought federal approval of a conservation plan for the fishery. Researchers at Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute in Newport track whale movements and help managers see where the risk is highest.
If you see an entangled whale, keep your distance and report it to the NOAA West Coast entanglement hotline. Trained teams handle disentanglement. Read more on how researchers track whales off Oregon.
Rosalind Teague covers ocean science, coastal hazards and the people who shaped the central coast.
