Whale-rescue experts in N.L. are showing their Canadian colleagues the ropes

Newfoundland and Labrador is a world leader in trying to save whales tangled in ocean detritus, including fishing gear, communications lines and plane debris.

Now the province's whale-disentanglement experts are working to pass those skills on to others.

"Different groups use different tools, so we're looking at the safest and most effective," said Julie Huntington of the St. John's-based group Whale Release and Strandings.

"We're discussing adapting tools and have prototypes that have never been in the water. This workshop is one of the first of its kind, and we will all walk away with new ideas."

The group recently hosted a whale disentanglement workshop at the Marine Institute in St. John's — a chance for people from New Brunswick's Campobello Island, the Quebec Maritime Mammal Response Network, and British Columbia to discuss tools and techniques for freeing whales from fishing gear.

"Our tools were originally developed through the Whale Research Group and Jon Lien, but the fishing gear has changed as time passed," said Huntington. "We often don't know who the gear belongs to, so we work to get it off the whale and out of the water."

The workshop happened alongside the world's biggest flume tank — a 1.7-million-litre tank used to test gear and techniques, among other things. 

The practice of disentangling whales began in Newfoundland and Labrador in 1979 — to try to retrieve fishing gear and return it to fishermen. 

Huntington and her colleague Wayne Ledwell learned about whale disentanglement from Jon Lien, an animal behaviourist and organic farmer nicknamed "the whale man."

Lien founded the Newfoundland Whale Research Group and pioneered and innovated many whale rescue techniques now used worldwide.

"At one point, we were cautious about cutting nets and wanted to return gear to fishers so they could return to fishing immediately," said Huntington, who started working with the group in the late '80s.

But the tools they use and their priorities have changed since then, she said.

These days, Huntington and Ledwell use a five-metre Zodiac, and alongside a safety boat they use a variety of cutting tools to free tangled whales.

She points to a rusty piece of machinery on a table.