Rescuers free entangled whale near Point Pinos (California, USA)

Line believed to be from a Waverider buoy is tangled in a humpback whale’s fluke off the coast the Monterey. The whale was freed from the line this week. (Marine Life Studies/Whale Entanglement Team). Image taken under MMHRSP permit #932-1905

November 1^st, 2014. Entanglement Team (WET) were able to free a humpback whale that was found Thursday in Monterey Bay struggling in line that was believed to have come from a Waverider buoy approximately 25 nautical miles from Point Pinos.

Peggy West-Stap, executive director of Marine Life Studies and a founding member of WET, said the entangled whale was discovered Oct. 24 by the crew of the Santa Cruz-based Shana Rae, which had been dispatched to check the Waverider buoy.

Stap said the captain of the Shana Rae contacted the whale-watching fleet over the radio to report the describing the condition of the sub-adult whale as “weak and struggling,” with significant damage to its flukes.

The captain of another vessel, Fast Raft, relayed the information to Pieter Folkens of WET.

A response was not mounted that day due to the late hour of the report and the distance offshore, and weather precluded any response over the weekend, Stap said.

On Wednesday, WET deployed an HH-65 (Dolphin) helicopter out of USCG Air Station Alameda, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary’s 67-foot research vessel Fulmar and crew, NOAA Enforcement, a Waverider buoy representative, and eight members of the WET response team headed by Folkens.

WET members are trained and respond under the auspices of NOAA’s Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program, Stap said.

WET analyzed an entanglement video captured on an underwater camera, which revealed a severe tail entanglement at the fluke insertion with substantial necrotic tissue. Whale lice were present and the skin on the body indicated poor health overall, Stap said.

The team devised a plan that involved two cuts on the line wrapped around the whale. After the cuts were made the entanglement slipped off and the whale swam away.

“The feeling of joy I felt the moment when the final cut of the line was made and the young whale swam free was something I could not put into words,” Stap said. “It was amazing to know our efforts as a team gave this whale a renewed chance to be a productive member of the local population of endangered humpback whales.”

WET is a group of 30-plus volunteer professionals assembled and trained for the purpose of disentangling whales. Most of WET’s core members have direct affiliations with other conservation organizations.

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