The whale rescuer

By Terry Roberts

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

Wayne Ledwell leans over the side of his small inflatable boat and sticks his silver-haired head into the waters of Placentia Bay, N.L.

Through the lens of his mask, he observes a tangle of ropes, netting and buoys.

He's so fixated on the colourful web of nylon that he barely notices the dark, 40-tonne humpback whale - bobbing occasionally to the surface to release a plume of breath - within arm's reach.

He's got a puzzle to solve, and an anxious fisherman, William White of Southeast Bight, waiting nearby.

White wants his gill nets back so he can get back to work catching his quota of codfish.

After nearly three hours of painstaking effort, Ledwell releases the last piece of rope that had snarled the whale and the majestic beast slowly swims away.

It's another successful day at the office - in this case, at sea - for Ledwell, a 54-year-old native of Calvert.The whale is alive. White has his fishing gear - relatively undamaged - and nearly 600 pounds of cod.

Ledwell drives back to his home in Portugal Cove-St. Philip's to wait for the next call.

White is impressed. "It was a good job. Very good for me," he said following the whale’s release.

Ledwell has never kept exact records, but he figures he's done this about 200 times. He's also never drawn the spotlight like his more celebrated mentor, Jon Lien, the former head of the now-defunct Whale Research Group at Memorial University.

People often mistake Ledwell for Lien when he shows up to release a whale. Ledwell doesn't take it as a slight. If anything, it's a compliment.

The two worked together for about a decade during the 1980s and '90s, and Ledwell learned his craft from Lien.

Lien released his first whale 30 years ago, and pioneered techniques to deal with entrapments that are used throughout the world. It wasn't uncommon for Lien, Ledwell and other members of the group to release more than 100 stranded whales each summer.

Lien has since retired and was recently made a member of the Order of Canada for his conservation work.

Ledwell toils on in relative obscurity as the head of a new group, Whale Release and Strandings, which is not affiliated with the university. The group is funded by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Ledwell releases an average of 30 whales each year.

Despite his many years of experience, Ledwell said he still gets a rush every time the phone rings. He says every entrapment is different, and he approaches each situation with a healthy respect for the whale and its power, and an understanding of what the fisherman has at stake. "It's not generally the nicest way to meet people, but it's rewarding when I get everything off a whale and a fellow gets back his gear. You feel good."

The entanglement problem went away after the cod fishery closed in the early 1990s, but Ledwell says the issue is resurfacing as whales encounter more and more gill nets, especially off the south and west coasts.

Whales are also getting caught in gear used to harvest snow crab, and Ledwell has traveled hundreds of mile offshore to free an animal.

His job is so unique that many seasoned fishermen, White included, look on in disbelief as Ledwell employs his low-tech tools and proven methods to release whales trapped in fishing gear.

His objective is to get everything off the whale. "You're always looking at that rope. It's like a challenge between you and that rope," Ledwell explained recently.

He says one of the biggest myths is that he gets into the water with the whale. That's something he would never do. There's too much that could go wrong and people have died, he said.

He's not seeking any fanfare, Ledwell says, his accent betraying his Southern Shore roots.

But he's eager to promote his services and wants fishermen to know he can save them money and frustration if they call him when a whale, turtle or basking shark (alive or dead) gets tangled in their gear.

And there's no cost to the fisherman. "If we get to a whale and it's alive, we'll set it free," says Ledwell. (Terry Roberts is a journalist with Transcontinental Media’s Telegram, which is a contributor to the Sou’Wester.)

WHO YOU GONNA CALL?

If there is a whale, turtle or basking shark (alive or dead) caught in your fishing gear, or you see any of these marine animals on a beach, call toll-free, 1-888-895-3003, and a trained crew will assist you.