Protocol for Liaison with DFO

For all species of whales (eg: humpback, fin, minke, etc), DFO requires that responders have a contract with the Department and the appropriate licence(s), authorization(s) and/or permit(s) required to conduct activities. The Department will continue to require disentanglement responders to follow a consultation process. However, the consultation process has been updated to recognize all Canadian experts for disentanglement response.

As such, Mr. Paul Cottrell, Mr. Wayne Ledwell, Ms. Julie Huntington, Dr. Moira Brown, Mr. Mackie Greene, Mr. Robert Fitzsimmons and Mr. Everett Sacrey, have been identified, based on their experience, as “Expert Entanglement Responders” to provide advice on entanglement response to help assess and evaluate whale entanglement events. The process for consultation should proceed as follows:

1. The regional DFO marine mammal coordinator (or alternate DFO designated point of contact) must be contacted if an Expert Entanglement Responder decides that a reported incident about an entangled whale should be responded to. Any photos or other relevant data must be forwarded to the regional DFO marine mammal coordinator. This information will be used by the Department and Expert Entanglement Responder to determine what actions should be taken. The DFO marine mammal coordinator (or alternate DFO designated point of contact) will initiate/coordinate an assessment with/among the Expert Entanglement Responders.
2. Based on the on-going assessment of the incident with Expert Entanglement Responder  (as identified above), it will be determined if a DFO authorized third party disentanglement responder should be contacted (if not already a part of the assessment process) and asked to develop and discuss a plan and options for a response strategy, including all human safety elements.
3. Based on the assessment of incident, response plans and direction from an Expert Entanglement Responder, a decision will be made by all parties whether to proceed with disentanglement or not.

4. After an authorized disentanglement, third party responders will be required to submit a post-entanglement report to the regional DFO marine mammal coordinator.

This process has been implemented to ensure that human safety remains our top priority. The following are the regional DFO contact numbers:

Gulf Region:

506-378-8918 (France Saulnier)

Newfoundland and Labrador Region:

709-689-8246 (Jackie Kean)

Quebec Region:

418-572-9957 (Mathieu Pellerin)

Maritimes Region:

902-237-4960 (on call number)

Pacific Region:

604-240-3841 (Paul Cottrell) and
1-800-465-4336 (24 hour incident hotline)