UPDATED: Rescuers free entangled whale off the Peninsula
By Sandy Mazza Staff Writer Daily Breeze
Posted:
PasadenaStarNews.com
It took rescuers several hours today to free a gray whale that was entangled with heavy discarded fishing lines off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
The bulk of netting and fishing line was cut from the whale's fluke, or tail, at about 1:30 p.m. - after about three hours of work, said Pacific Marine Mammal Center education director Kelli Lewis.
"We're feeling elated," Lewis said, minutes after the whale swam away. "The guys all cheered as soon as they saw the buoy and netting break loose."
The whale was first seen in distress Wednesday night off Laguna Beach, and Pacific Marine Mammal Center employees sent a disentanglement team to help.
Rescuers attached two orange bumper-type buoys to the whale so it could be found in the morning because it was too dark to do anything Wednesday, Lewis said. This morning, the whale was spotted off Point Vicente at about 10 a.m.
Brad Sawyer, captain of the Redondo Beach Voyager, was the first to catch up to the distressed whale.
"I figured that, with the (fishing debris) and two buoys, he's not swimming too fast," Sawyer said, of determining the whale's location. "I guesstimated where he'd be. We were the first boat on him."
Nicole Beckman, a deckhand on the Voyager, said the whale was swimming slowly in large circles.
"You couldn't see fishing line on him but he wasn't putting his tail up," Beckman said. "Once Harbor Patrol showed up, everyone started cheering. It was definitely in distress but it didn't look injured. I'm hoping once they get all the stuff off, he'll be OK."
The Pacific Marine Mammal Center's disentanglement team worked with Marine Animal Rescue in a small boat to cut the fishing gear off of the whale's tail. They were assisted by the Los Angeles County Fire Department Lifeguard Division.
Rescuers used a specially made switchblade attached to a long pole to cut off the line.
This is the second entangled gray whale spotted this week off Southern California. Rescuers freed a young gray whale spotted off of Dana Point Harbor with about 50 feet of netting and rope wrapped around its tail.
Though rescuers were able to remove most of the line wrapped around that whale, it had suffered severe cuts and was emaciated. Experts said it washed up dead Tuesday in Long Beach Harbor.
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