Entangled Whale Freed, But May Not Survive

LA PUSH, WA — A juvenile gray whale found entangled in fishing gear roughly 20 miles off the Olympic Peninsula in Washington was freed on Wednesday, though Fishery officials are unsure how well the whale will be in the longterm.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries' Large Whale Entanglement Response Network believes the whale had been carrying the fishing gear around for up to a month before Jeff Pederson, a Ridgefield, Washington, fisherman on the FV Harvester of Harvester's Catch, reported the whale's situation to the U.S. Coast Guard on May 8.

Using the Entangled Whale Hotline, the U.S. Coast Guard notified NOAA and sent Coast Guard personnel to assess the whale's condition. Meanwhile, NOAA activated its own teams out of Olympia and Seattle.

When a vessel from USCG Station Quillayute River caught up with the whale on Tuesday, they found the animal was in poor health "because the lines had cut deeply into its tissue, causing an infection," NOAA spokesman Michael Milstein said in a statement. "The forward part of the whale’s body was bloated, preventing it from diving. In addition, the skin and tail flukes were deteriorating and another line weighted down the tail 15 feet below the surface, leaving the whale unable to swim."

The severity of the whale's entanglement and deteriorating weather conditions forced the response teams to delay any serious rescue attempts until Wednesday. Before leaving the whale, response team members attached to it a telemetry buoy so they could find it quickly when they returned the following day.

Overnight, the response team consulted with a team of veterinarians about how to handle the whale and whether it could be saved.

Considering again the fatal danger the whale was in, along with the expectation for continued bad weather on the water, the response team and USCG escort headed back out Wednesday to resolve the issue sooner than later.

"Teams cut the lines wrapping the tail and removed the weighted gear holding the tail underwater. However some embedded line and a short bit of trailing gear remained," Milstein said. "The whale’s posture did not change once it was freed from the weighted gear, suggesting that the whale may have suffered long-term or permanent damage. [But], after two hours, the whale started increasing movement of its tail, which gave responders some hope."

NOAA officials believe the response teams gave the whale the best chances for recovery and survival they could have based on the conditions, but ultimately have little hope for a long-term prognosis.

Images via National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration