Rescuers unable to free entangled humpback

PETERSBURG — An entangled humpback whale continues to remain snared in a gill net despite a two day effort last weekend to free the animal.

Don Holmes with the Marine Mammal Center in Petersburg received a call Friday morning about the snared whale in Frederick Sound. He and other volunteers were granted permission from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association to assess the situation.

“We found that the whale was completely wrapped on the flukes with the lead line draping across of the back of the animal,” Holmes said.

Holmes and the others decided something needed to be done rather than standby.

Holmes said the whale was still active because it had only recently been tangled and was pulling the boat by the net it was snagged on. After several hours of attempting to free the animal from the net without success the team, along with the boat captain, cut the net free.

“We worked with it for awhile and put buoys on the trailing pieces of the net and a transponder that gives a GPS signal so we could find the whale later,” Holmes said.

He estimates there are five to ten fathoms of gear still attached to the whale’s tail. The team stayed with the animal until around 5 p.m. before heading back to Petersburg. The following Sunday they tracked the transponder and found the humpback near Cape Fanshaw.

Holmes said the whale had moved roughly 20 miles from where they had engaged it last. Weather conditions made it difficult to approach the whale and nothing more could have been done.

“The whale is doing okay in terms of breathing,” Holmes said. “It’s not able to swim well. It’s using its pectorals rather than its flukes to swim with. It’s not lifting its tail out of the water.

The whale is making its way towards Juneau where another team from the capital city will attempt to free the entangled animal.