Joe Howlett, a fisherman and wildlife conservationist known for helping whales entangled in nets and fishing lines, was tragically killed Monday, just moments after freeing an endangered North Atlantic right whale.
Howlett was in the midst of an operation to rescue the massive whale off the Coast of New Brunswick, according to a statement by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. He had just finished cutting the last piece of rope off the sea animal, successfully freeing it, when it did a flip and struck him.
“They got the whale totally disentangled and then some kind of freak thing happened and the whale made a big flip,” Mackie Greene, the captain of the Campobello Whale Rescue Team, which Howlett co-founded, told the Canadian Press. “Joe definitely would not want us to stop because of this. This is something he loved and there’s no better feeling than getting a whale untangled, and I know how good he was feeling after cutting that whale clear.”
Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, referred to Howlett as “irreplaceable” as he shared his condolences.
“We have lost an irreplaceable member of the whale rescue community,” he said in a statement. “His expertise and dedication will be greatly missed.”
LeBlanc claimed that “there are serious risks involved with any disentanglement attempt” and commended those who are brave enough to perform such tasks to save marine life.
The North Atlantic right whale is considered an endangered species in both Canada and the United States, with only about 500 left in the whole world, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada. They can live to be as old as 75 and grow up to almost 60 feet long.
On July 5, Howlett and his team had cheered after a successful rescue of one of the endangered beings.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare, which funds the Campobello Whale Rescue Team, considered Howlett “a true friend of the animals” who had given so much of his time to freeing whales in the Bay of Fundy and eastern Canada.
“He did it for years, he was good at it and had a lot of successes,” Campobello Island Mayor Stephen Smart told Canadian Broadcasting Corp. News, of Howlett. “I’m sure for him, I’m sure it was just another day at work.”
Smart called Howlett’s death a “big blow” to the small community.
“There’s only 850 people here on Campobello Island now and Joe was a very lively character, he had a great sense of humor,” Smart told the news site. “Everybody knew Joe Howlett and everybody respected Joe Howlett.”
