Tutu the humpback whale is freed from 150 metres of fishing gear off Vancouver Island

A juvenile humpback whale nicknamed Tutu is swimming freely again after a multi-day mission to disentangle it from more than 150 metres of fishing gear off Vancouver Island.

Paul Cottrell, a marine mammal coordinator with the federal Fisheries Department, says the rescue team received several reports from the public about the 4-1/2-year-old whale towing a fishing buoy near Texada Island in the northern Salish Sea on Sept. 4.

Cottrell says the department’s rescue team and the Cetus Research and Conservation Society spent three days freeing the whale from the fishing gear, in an operation the department documented in a social-media video.

He says the first day of the operation rid Tutu of most of the gear before the whale was tracked with a satellite tag to locate him the next day.

Cottrell says Tutu was finally freed on Sept. 6, suffering a few abrasions on the flukes, which did not appear to be life-threatening.

He says anyone who sees a whale in distress should report it immediately to the department’s 24-hour marine mammal incident hotline.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2025.

Fatima Raza, The Canadian Press