A humpback whale entangled in fishing gear swims near the ocean???s surface in 2005. (NOAA/Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary)
Untangling Both a Whale and Why Marine Life Get Mixed up With Our Trash
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Sadly, a humpback whale swimming in the blue waters off of Maui, Hawaii, got first-hand experience with this issue in February 2014.
Luckily, trained responders from the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary were able to remove the long tangle of fishing rope wrapped around the whale???s head, mouth, and right pectoral fin.
According to NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuaries:
“A long pole with a specially designed hook knife was used by trained and permitted personnel to cut through the entanglement.
Hundreds of feet of small gauge line were collected after the successful disentanglement. The entanglement was considered life threatening and the whale is confirmed to be totally free of gear.”
Check out these short videos taken by the response team for a glimpse of what it???s like trying to free one of these massive marine mammals from this debris:
Humpback Whale Cut Free from Marine Debris – Maui 02.19.14 (Part 1)
Humpback Whale Cut Free from Marine Debris – Maui 02.19.14 (Part 2)
Humpback Whale Cut Free from Marine Debris – Maui 02.19.14 (Part 3)
While this whale was fortunate enough to have some help escaping, the issue of wildlife getting tangled in marine debris is neither new nor going away. Recently, the NOAA Marine Debris Program and National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science reviewed scientific reports of ocean life entangled by marine debris in the United States. You can read the full NOAA report [PDF].
Read a bunch more…