Biologists are hoping to save a humpback whale last seen entangled in a fishing net off the coast of San Pedro.<\/p>\n
The whale was first spotted near Palos Verdes Thursday by passengers and crew on a midday whale watching tour. Wildlife experts responding to the tour\u2019s report set out on boats to try to remove the net, but were stymied by choppy waters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team made multiple attempts to reach the trailing gear, but the whale\u2019s behavior and water and weather conditions hampered their efforts,\u201d Sarah Mesnick, a biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s Southwest Fisheries Science Center, told KTLA<\/a>. \u201cThey also attempted to put on a satellite tracking tag, but similarly, conditions hampered their efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n The whale was last seen Thursday near Point Fermin in San Pedro. The same animal was observed without a net Aug. 22 off the coast of Humboldt County, and Sept. 20 near San Luis Obispo, according to reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of this entanglement, this whale is not able to move freely,\u201d Harbor Breeze Cruises posted<\/a> along with a video of the whale. This is the second entangled whale the tour operator has witnessed since August, the company said.<\/p>\n The imperiled whale was seen just one day after NOAA released a report<\/a> counting 76 cases of large whales entangled in castoff lines and nets off U.S. coasts in 2025. Fishing gear was responsible for 46% of the cases, with the rest attributed to ropes or lines not directly tied to fishing.<\/p>\n While the total was down from the previous year\u2019s record high<\/a> of 95 entanglements, California still surpasses all other U.S. states in the number of cases. Nearly 27% of 2025 entanglements were observed off the coast of California.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s disturbing that we have to add yet another humpback to this year\u2019s morbid tally of whale entanglements, even though we know how to solve this problem,\u201d Ben Grundy-Hawley of the Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement. \u201cThis poor whale went from swimming freely to being desperately entangled in fishing gear, and it\u2019s all too likely that this will end in death. Pop-up gear<\/a> could help prevent these tragedies, and we need to move quickly to deploy it and protect our whales from this deadly threat.\u201d<\/p>\n NOAA has asked the public to report any sightings of the whale to the entanglement hotline at (877) 767-9425, or (877) SOS-WHALE.<\/p>\n