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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, February 25, 2003

Crew helps free tangled whale

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau

A young humpback whale swimming off Maui was freed Sunday from 100 feet of rope that had become wrapped around its midsection, officials said yesterday.

Members of a whale disentanglement team removed about 100 feet of nylon rope that had become tightly wrapped around a young humpback whale's midsection.

Claire Chapelle • Special to The Advertiser

The 35-foot, 1-year-old whale was rescued by a whale disentanglement team newly established by state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Officials said a private boater, Willy Bennett, reported seeing the entangled whale about 2 1/2 miles off Olowalu at about 9:20 a.m. Sunday, then kept an eye on it until officials arrived shortly before noon.

The team of marine scientists used a customized soft-bottom inflatable boat, special buoys and an anchor to help break off the rope with no apparent injury to the whale, said team member David Matilla.

The yellow nylon rope was wrapped tightly around the whale's midsection and loops of rope were trailing about 80 feet behind the animal.

"The whale appeared to be growing into it — a definitely lethal entanglement,'' Matilla said.

Team members in the inflatable boat first attached four buoys to the trailing rope in hopes of slowing the whale enough to approach it and then cut the rope free. But while the buoys succeeded in keeping the whale at the surface, the strong animal seemed unfazed by the drag.

The team then attached an anchor for even more resistance. Instead of stopping the whale, the rope broke under the stress, leaving the whale free to swim away, Matilla said.

Throughout the operation, the whale continued to stay in the company of two other whales, dragging the inflatable boat a distance of about eight miles.

"For a while there I thought it was going to take us to O'ahu,'' Matilla said.

Although the rope cut into the whale's back, the wound appeared to be superficial and should heal quickly. The whale appeared to be in good condition when it swam away, he said.

Matilla is science and rescue coordinator for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, and a former director of disentanglement for the Center for Coastal Studies in Massachusetts.