Why is documentation such a big priority?
Without documentation, little can be learned about entanglements and how to prevent them. By understanding how, where, when and who gets entangled, we may be able to make better decisions regarding the ultimate solution to the problem: prevention. By documenting each entanglement fully, for example, we have found that many whales become entangled while feeding and are more likely to become entangled in any gear floating or suspended in the water column (as opposed to lying flat on the sea floor). Documentation also shows if the disentanglement has been successful or not and creates an understanding of the healing process. Considering that 10-20% of the humpback and right whale populations may become entangled each year, the work of the rescue team becomes daunting. Even more alarming, PCCS and New England Aquarium research on scars attributable to entanglements has shown that only 3% of these entangled whales are ever reported.
