A young humpback whale tangled in fishing gear near Stellwagen Bank was freed Sunday after rescuers used a hook-shaped knife on a 30-foot pole to cut through rope wrapped around its tail. Despite injuries, responders said it’s reasonably confident the whale wi
The whale surfaced again and again in the open water of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. struggling against a buoy line tied to fishing gear. Late Sunday morning. recreational boaters reported it was tangled and not moving normally—an alarm that set the clock ticking as winds were expected to strengthen.
The Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown said its Marine Animal Entanglement Response team was dispatched after the reports. When responders arrived. they found a relatively young humpback whale with rope wrapped multiple times around the base of its tail. CCS said the entanglement had effectively anchored the whale, forcing it to spend most of its time at the surface.
To free it. the team moved quickly and worked with a careful. improvised tool: a hook-shaped knife at the end of a 30-foot pole. In a series of cuts, responders removed the ropes, CCS said. Once the whale was freed. it remained at the surface while the MAER team monitored it as it gradually regained mobility.
CCS said the whale suffered injuries from the entanglement, but responders were “reasonably confident” it would recover.
The rescue came with a warning sign already visible before the entanglement took hold. CCS said the whale had been spotted frequently by whale-watch operators over the past month due to deep but healing wounds around its body prior to entanglement. Researchers with CCS’s Humpback Whale Studies Program are now working to identify the animal.
For assistant director Bob Lynch with MAER, the outcome was personal even as it was collaborative. “It was really great that so many people and institutions helped out in this case,” Lynch said in the release. “The whale has a much better prognosis due to that.”
CCS credited a broad network of agencies and organizations for assisting in the rescue. naming the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries. the Massachusetts Environmental Police. TowBoatUS. the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. Maria Harvey of HIHWNMS said it was “an honor to help this whale and great to continue the collaboration between our teams.”.
humpback whale entanglement fishing gear Stellwagen Bank Massachusetts coast Center for Coastal Studies Marine Animal Entanglement Response