STAY CONNECTED: Have the stories that matter most delivered every night to your email inbox. Subscribe to our daily local news wrap.
RCMP in Alert Bay off Vancouver Island's northern coast say a young otter, shown in this undated handout photo, has been reunited with its family days after it was revived via CPR after being found entangled in a fishing net. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout — Alert Bay RCMP (Mandatory Credit)
By The Canadian Press

Otter pup revived by CPR, reunited with family, after choking on fishing net in B.C.

Aug 11, 2026 | 12:15 PM

Gordon Mellish says he has saved at least 10 people using CPR after being trained in the life-saving technique, but giving mouth-to-mouth to an otter -pup was a completely different animal.

Mellish, a resident of the British Columbia coastal community of Alert Bay off northern Vancouver Island, was among the people who successfully revived an otter pup that had stopped breathing after being caught in a net.

Alert Bay RCMP say the rescue happened on July 28, when residents heard sounds of animals in distress on ‘Namgis Dock, and fount three pups tangled in a fishing net left on the dock.

Mellish said in an interview on Tuesday that it was his niece and son-in-law who made the discovery.

“They said they could hear what sounded like babies crying,” he said. “So they ran down to the end of the float and there were three sea otters caught (in) a net over the edge of the float in the water.

“Two of them were floating and able to breathe, but the third one wasn’t moving … so I had to bring it onto the dock, cut it all out of the web and start to perform CPR.”

Mellish said he began with gentle chest compressions to pump water out of the pup as well as to restart breathing, but eventually had to place his mouth over the animal’s nose and mouth to give it “half a breath of life.”

Police say the two other otter pups found in the net were also cut loose, and they immediately swam to their mother who was waiting in the water nearby.

“The second one bit my thumb (and) held onto it for about three seconds, so that was nasty,” Mellish said. “So I got at him and I told him, ‘Look, I’m trying to just rescue you.’ And he calmed down.”

The third pup that was strangled by the fishing net eventually began breathing due to the CPR, which police described as an act of “remarkable composure and compassion” by Mellish.

Rescuers including police and local wildlife volunteers then consulted with the Mountainaire Avian Rescue Society in Merville, B.C., and transported the pup to a wildlife rehabilitation facility for treatment.

The animal then made a full recovery after several days in care, and police said in a statement that it has been released and reunited with its family in the wild.

Mellish said he was at the release and they could not find the family of the otter pup nearby, but they consulted the SPCA who told them a pup of six-to-eight months in age can feed in the wild.

“So we decided we’d go down the beach and let her go,” Mellish said. “So we went down to the beach and 20 feet off the water’s edge, we put the cage down and they went to let me release it because it knew my scent.

“It didn’t want to go right away. It circled the cage about five times and then it walked down to the water’s edge. And just before it went to go swim away, it turned back to me, looked me eye-to-eye and nodded its head, and off it went.”

Police are now warning residents not to leave nets on the dock due to risks to wildlife.

“This incident serves as an important reminder that properly securing and storing fishing gear can help prevent unnecessary harm to animals and protect the wildlife that makes our community so special”, Sgt. David Ribeiro-Pereira of the Alert Bay RCMP said in a statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 11, 2026.

Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press