Fisherman Dies Moments After Saving Entangled Whale
Before his tragic death, Joe Howlett had worked for 15 years to rescue whales entangled or trapped in fishing gear.
During a rescue operation to disentangle an Atlantic right whale from a web of fishing gear, seasoned wildlife rescuer Joe Howlett lost his life.
The endangered animal had become entangled in rope when initially spotted by officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A team of rescuers from the New England Aquarium, the Canadian Whale Institute, Dalhousie University, and the Campobello Whale Rescue Team, which Howlett was a part of, dispatched to help free the animal on July 5.
"They got the whale totally disentangled and then some kind of freak thing happened and the whale made a big flip," Mackie Green from the Campobello Whale Rescue Team told The Star.
Howlett died at 59 years
