Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation saves otter pup found strangled by fishing net in B.C.

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, helped save the pup after it became trapped in a fishing net and stopped breathing.

Alert Bay RCMP released a statement on Tuesday after the release of the pup into the wild, saying residents heard animals in distress on ‘Namgis Dock on July 28, and found three pups entangled.

Mellish said in an interview that his niece and son-in-law heard “what sounded like babies crying.”

“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,” he said on Tuesday.

“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, but eventually had to place his mouth over the animal’s nose and mouth to give it “half a breath of life.”

It eventually began breathing due to the CPR, which police described as an act of “remarkable composure and compassion” by Mellish.

The two other pups immediately swam to their mother after being cut loose.

“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.”

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

The pup made a full recovery after several days in care, and police said in a statement that it has been released.

”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.”

Mellish was at the release and he said the family couldn’t be located, but the SPCA told them such a pup of six to eight months in age could feed itself.

“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 unattended 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 the statement.

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