Rescuers disentangled a young humpback whale that was stuck in fishing gear in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of Massachusetts, the Center for Coastal Studies said.
The whale was injured, but the center’s Marine Animal Entanglement Response team “feels reasonably confident that it will recover,” the Provincetown-based organization said in a statement Monday.
Boaters reported a small whale stuck in the buoy line of fishing gear to the Coast Guard Saturday morning, the statement said.
The Coast Guard contacted the entanglement response team, who found that rope was wrapped around the young whale’s tail, anchoring it to the surface of the water, the Center for Coastal Studies said.
The team used a knife on a 30-foot pole to cut the rope and free the whale. Rescuers stayed with the whale while it regained its mobility, the organization said.
The whale had been reported by whale watchers previously for deep wounds from a prior entanglement, according to the center.
The center’s Humpback Whale Studies Program is working on identifying the whale.
NOAA Fisheries, the Massachusetts Environmental Police, the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, and TowBoatUS assisted in the rescue.
“It was really great that so many people and institutions helped out in this case,” said the assistant director of Marine Animal Entanglement Response Bob Lynch. “The whale has a much better prognosis due to that.”
The center urged boaters to report marine animal entanglement sightings to the emergency response team at 1-800-900-3622 or the Coast Guard on radio channel VHF 16.
Chloe Pisani can be reached at chloe.pisani@globe.com.