Land & Sea: The Trouble with Whales

Spotting a humpback whale is considered a joyful event these days. Images of whales, icebergs and puffins have become symbols of Newfoundland's natural beauty.

It's difficult to imagine a time when whales were despised. But in this two-part archival episode of Land & Sea from 1980, Herb Davis meets frustrated fishermen from St. Vincent's to Bay de Verde who were losing cod traps to the large mammals. Frustrated, the fishermen would sometimes shoot the whales in an effort to spare their traps. 

A cod trap was a valuable and expensive piece of equipment. Traps were essentially large underwater corrals made up of four net walls designed to capture the cod until they were scooped alive into a boat.

Losing a cod trap to a whale could spell disaster for a fisherman's livelihood and was often fatal for the whale, as well.

Provincewide, fishermen were losing up to half a million dollars worth of gear every year, but their demands for government assistance with the issue were not being met.  

That's where the now legendary Jon Lien of Memorial University's Whale Research Group came in.

Once a whale got caught, Jon and his team were often called upon to travel to remote coves and bays to disentangle whales by hand. In Part 2, you can watch Lien's rescue of an agitated humpback using a small Zodiac in rough seas.

For more archival Land & Sea episodes check out our CBCNL YouTube playlist.