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Fishing guides unable to save porpoise
By Paul Rudan
The Mirror
Sep 21 2007
Despite the efforts of Painter’s Lodge guides and the Vancouver Aquarium
Marine Rescue Team, an injured baby porpoise had to be euthanized.
“The cuts it suffered from a propellor were too severe and it was
probably in a great deal of pain,” said Brenda Jones, a spokesperson for
the aquarium.
According to Dave Gosnell, Painter’s manager of marine operations, the
young harbour porpoise was spotted Saturday by fishing guide Russ Lim.
It was swimming alone in Discovery Passage and appeared injured, so Lim
gently captured it in his fish net.
He then brought the wounded mammal – which weighed about 25 pounds – to
the Painter’s dock. Painter’s staff made a sling to hold the animal in
the water and then Gosnell contacted the Vancouver Aquarium.
“They advised us on how to take care of it until they arrived,” said
Gosnell. “It actually fit into one of our coolers. We propped it up with
some lifejackets and kept it bathed in water.”
The aquarium responded by sending the Marine Rescue Team – the manager,
a vet and a vet’s technician – to Campbell River to examine the
porpoise.
They arrived at about 1 a.m. Sunday and examined the propeller cuts on
the back third of the porpoise. However the lacerations were too severe.
The rescue team concluded their was no chance the animal could be
rehabilitated and decided to euthanize the mammal. The porpoise was then
sent to the Provincial Animal Health Centre in Abbotsford for a
necropsy.
“Everyone was pretty upset,” said Gosnell. “We tried our hardest to save
it.”
It’s quite rare, said Jones, for the aquarium to get calls about injured
porpoises – the last one came three years ago. It’s far more common for
the marine team to rescue and rehabilitate injured harbour seals.
“We rehabilitate over 100 harbour seals every year,” said Jones, who
pointed out the fully-recovered animals are released back into the wild.
According to Jones and Gosnell, the incident serves as a reminder for
boaters to stay 100 metres away from marine wildlife and to cut the
engine if there’s a closer encounter.
“It was pretty sad for us and and our guests,” he said. |
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