The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission is expected to vote late Friday on whether to permanently set stricter rules and pot limits put in place in 2020 to protect whales. Humpbacks, which migrate off Oregon's coast, and other whales can get caught in the vertical ropes connected to the heavy traps and drag them around for months, leaving the mammals injured, starved or so exhausted that they can drown. Pettis is among a number of veteran crabbers who fear regulators are on the cusp of curtailing the lucrative industry with overregulation to protect whales. Pettis, a crab fisherman, said it's the only time in his 44 years of fishing he has ever seen a whale caught in crab lines, and he believes that is proof such encounters are "extremely rare." That was in 2004, off the waters of Waldport, Oregon. It took two men with serrated knives 40 minutes to free the whale, which swam away with a small piece of rope still embedded in its skin. ![]() ![]() Tangled around its tail was a polypropylene rope used to pull up crab traps. In the wheelhouse of a crab boat named Heidi Sue, Mike Pettis watched the grey whale surface and shoot water through its blowhole.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |