Juneau, AK — Somewhere in the waters of Southeast Alaska, a humpback calf swims freely alongside its relieved mother—thanks to a long day of efforts by NOAA Fisheries large whale disentanglement team.
The entanglement was first reported Wednesday morning by a charter fishing vessel near Halibut Cove in Lynn Canal.
“We received a report of a calf entangled in line with a trailing buoy traveling with its mother at a rapid clip, about 5 knots,”
said Kate Savage, NOAA marine mammal specialist and veterinarian. “They maintained that speed throughout the disentanglement operation, which made things quite challenging.”
A number of whale watching boats monitored the pair until the NOAA team arrived. Members of the team attached a transmitter to the calf as a safeguard against losing its location. They returned shortly later aboard the Auke Bay Lab’s research boat, The Quest, to begin the disentanglement operation.
The process was a bit tricky, as the mother humpback was very protective of her calf, and kept trying to position herself between the rescuers and the calf.
After assessing which lines to cut that would allow for disentanglement, scientists severed those lines to successfully free the calf at about 8 p.m. just west of Berners Bay. The calf was still trailing a short section of line which was not considered life threatening, and was expected to drop without further intervention.
The team continued to monitor the whale pair for about 30 minutes to make sure all was okay. The rescue operation took several hours.
NOAA Fisheries asks fishers to help prevent entanglements by reducing unnecessary scope on pot gear, minimizing soak times, and removing gear that is not actively fishing.
NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Visit us at http://www.noaa.gov or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/usnoaagov. To learn more about NOAA Fisheries in Alaska, visit alaskafisheries.noaa.gov or: www.afsc.noaa.gov.
(WHALES / OCEAN CONSERVATION) After years of defending marine wildlife, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society may have finally won the whale war with Japan. It seems as though Sea Shepherd’s work, coupled with a shrinking demand for whale meat, has made the continuation of whale-killing emanating from Japan unlikely. A permanent end to Japanese whaling would bring us that much closer to worldwide whale safety. Congratulations to Paul Watson and the tireless Sea Shepherds who have been at it for years, long before a show, long before international stardom and long before anybody else cared enough to put it all on the line. — Global Animal