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| Tuesday, December 13, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: PCCS Disentanglement Team in North CarolinaRight Whale's Back Remains Wrapped in Rope; Most Gear Removed Click here for last known location of whale. (Off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina) - A disentanglement team led by the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies (PCCS) yesterday ended its attempt to free a young right whale off the coast of North Carolina after a line trailing from the whale parted.
The current nature of the entanglement and the remaining danger to the whale are not fully understood, though Morin adds "it could be still a life-threatening situation…the back wrap is still present." With satellite tracking no longer an option, another disentanglement action will depend upon future 'opportunistic reports' and a response by the Atlantic Large Whale Disentanglement Network (ALWDN,) which operates under federal authority and major support from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries Service.) The ALWDN comprises 20 disentanglement teams from Quebec to Florida, and is a unique, successful collaboration between private and public agencies and institutions, and hundreds of commercial fishermen, all of whom are dedicated to providing a coordinated emergency response to reports of entangled large whales. The Disentanglement Team at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies spent all of Monday at sea about 35 nautical miles off North Carolina. The PCCS team was comprised of David Morin and Scott Landry, and Mac Greene, who also is with the Campobello New Brunswick Whale Rescue Team. The whale's movements were tracked via satellite by another PCCS team member, Bob Bowman. As the afternoon progressed, the whale continued to travel north about 35 nautical miles off the coast of North Carolina, closely followed by the Coast Guard Cutter Elm, the base of the disentanglement mission. Late in the day the winds subsided and sea conditions improved enough for the teams to work with the whale for a short time before dark. Using a small aluminum Coast Guard vessel that is carried aboard the CGC Elm (the Elm II), some team members further documented the entanglement while other team members in an inflatable deployed a large balloon buoy and a drogue to the trailing line in an attempt to slow the whale and keep it at the surface. This maneuver had the effect of changing the whale's behavior noticeably - it stayed at the surface, but was quite agitated. The only rope available to use as a "control line" for the "kegging" operation - slowing the whale and keeping it at the surface - was the trailing portion of the same rope that entangled the whale. Disentanglement operations are effectively over for this whale at this time. Future efforts will rely on an opportunistic first response by a well trained and equipped team. About 20 feet of rope remains on the whale, and the remaining gear may loosen and unwind as a result of the reduced strain and the free end that was created by the removal of a significant amount of rope and buoys (more that 300 feet since the whale was discovered on December 3). Morin estimated the length of the yet-unidentified young right whale was between 30 to 35 feet. Monday's disentanglement attempt was the third time this particular animal was worked on by the Network, beginning on December 3. All told, during three attempts, a significant amount of entangling gear was removed from this young whale. The Atlantic Large Whale Disentanglement Network extends its thanks to the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Elm out of Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, which served as the base of operation. Other Network collaborators included Barb Zoodsma and Jamison Smith of NOAA Fisheries Service; Mark Dodd and Clay George of Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GA DNR;) and Tom Pitchford of Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC.) *** The entangled whale was first reported entangled 20 miles off the Georgia coast on Saturday, December 3, during a routine flight by a Wildlife Trust, Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and NOAA right whale aerial survey. Shortly thereafter, a PCCS-trained and equipped 'first response' team from Georgia DNR removed 200 feet of rope that trailed from the whale and attached a satellite tag to the remaining gear. This enabled network managers to track the whale's movements and relocate it for Monday's disentanglement attempt.*** Disentangling a right whale takes a great deal of planning, expertise, and coordination among agencies. Because of the speeds at which they move and distances they travel, it sometimes takes days or even weeks under ideal weather and oceanographic conditions for these events to reach a conclusion.The North Atlantic Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis) is among the world's most endangered species, with fewer than 350 remaining. Centuries of whaling decimated the population by the mid-18th century, and although conservation programs are in place, collisions with ships and lethal entanglements in fishing gear and marine debris threaten population's recovery. The Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies was founded in 1976 and is dedicated to researching and protecting marine mammals and marine ecosystems in the Gulf of Maine, through research, conservation and education programs. Its world-renowned whale disentanglement team operates under a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service. # # # Editors: Download video of the disentanglement attempt from NOAA Fisheries Service at http://www.noaa.gov.
PCCS Contacts:
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"It's fairly common" to have the line part during a disentanglement attempt says David Morin, who led the PCCS team. "The problem is, we had only one line to work with," he explained. "The animal tried to take everything under and that's when the gear popped," Morin added. That line was being used to try to slow the whale and keep it at the surface, and had also had served as the tether for the telemetry buoy that has been used to track the whale for the past nine days.
