Sunday, July 16, 2006

Media Release 7.7

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Theresa Barbo 774.263.4219

Two Humpback Whales Disentangled off New England Coast on Sunday

(Provincetown, Cape Cod, MA) -  Two humpback whales were freed from life-threatening entanglements 150 miles apart off the New England coast on Sunday by members of the Atlantic Large Whale Disentanglement Network, led by the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies (PCCS).

The Network received its first report from a whale watch boat 16 miles off Mount Desert Island, Maine, late on Saturday.  The whale was reported to be severely entangled and possibly anchored in ropes.  Although no immediate response could be mounted, Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies (PCCS) Large Whale Disentanglement program director Greg Krutzikowsky coordinated with Network partners from the Maine Marine Patrol who agreed to conduct a search of the area on Sunday morning.  Bob Bowman, a disentanglement expert who lives in the area and Mackie Greene, director of the Campobello Whale Rescue team, who traveled from New Brunswick to participate, prepared to respond if the whale was sighted.

At seven o’clock on Sunday morning the Maine Marine Patrol vessel Dirigo reported that they were with the whale and would stand by until the disentanglement team arrived.  Bowman and Greene traveled offshore in dense fog in a 17 foot inflatable loaded with specialized disentanglement equipment to meet Specialist Troy Dow and Marine Patrol Officer Colin MacDonald who had located the whale despite near-zero visibility.

The whale was not strugglling at the surface, but was nevertheless anchored by strong ropes to weighted gear on the seafloor that tightly wrapped its head and mouth that prevented it from swimming away.  “The whale was spending very little time at the surface, only a few seconds before diving for six minutes or more at a time, and it was using the entire range of travel that the entangling gear allowed – maybe a couple of hundred feet in every direction,” said Bowman.  Although the whale showed no strong reaction to the close presence of the inflatable, it did not cooperate and dove every time the team approached closely.  “Typically in these sorts of cases we will try to add large buoys to the entangling gear in order to keep the whale at the surface so that we can have some control and work on it, but that was impossible in this case – the only accessible entangling gear was a very small portion of the line that was cutting deep into the whale’s head across its blowholes - there was no way to hold this whale,” Bowman explained. The team’s only option was to try to follow the whale closely in hopes that eventually it would surface near enough to cut the line on its head.  That persistence paid off after an hour and a half when the team was able to follow the whale as it moved beneath the surface until it came up within a few feet and the rope was cut with a specially-hooked knife mounted on a pole.  All the entangling gear dropped free and the whale immediately disappeared into the fog.

In the midst of this even, the Disentanglement hotline rang again at the PCCS Marine Lab in Provincetown.  This time it was the U.S. Coast Guard relaying a report from a whale watch vessel of another entangled humpback, this time on Stellwagen Bank. 

As is frequently done, local whale watch companies coordinated among themselves to keep the whale in sight until the disentanglement team arrived.  This is especially important when dealing with free-swimming entangled whales as was this one, a well-known adult male whale named “Meteor.”  Over the course of two hours, until a PCCS disentanglement team was on site, the whale was followed in sequence by the Miss Cape Ann from Gloucester, the Portuguese Princess from Provincetown, the Voyager III from Boston; and finally by the NOAA research vessel, Nancy Foster, conducting a humpback whale study in the area for the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.

Meteor was not as seriously entangled as the one in Maine and was disentangled quickly by the PCCS team aboard their rapid response vessel Ibis.  Using a special pole-mounted grapple system, the team was able to catch the entangling lines and buoys that were wrapped around and trailing from the whale’s tail.  Using pressure, but making no cuts, the ropes were successfully pulled free.

“Our Network collaborators made the successful disentanglements today possible,” said PCCS Executive Director Peter Borrelli.  “The Maine Marine Patrol played an especially important role in the Maine event by locating, standing by and assisting our team.  In both cases the participation of the whale watch industry was critical.  When whale watch companies report entanglements and take the time to stand by, whales’ lives are saved,” added Borrelli.

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The Atlantic Large Whale Disentanglement Network (ALWDN) managed by PCCS, coordinated disentanglement efforts.  The network, which extends from Canada to Florida, is comprised of fishermen, scientists and government agencies.  Twenty trained volunteer First Response teams were established in strategic sights along the Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada.  These teams are supported by more than 600 professional mariners and biologists, including more than 400 commercial fishermen who have participated in PCCS-led entanglement response training at dozens of seminars since 1997, from Quebec to Florida.  The ALWDN is funded by and operates under a permit issued by NOAA Fisheries Service.

The ALWDN coordinates emergency responses to benefit the welfare of individual whales, and collects scientific information about the causes and effects of entanglement.  Disentanglement efforts are not a long-term conservation strategy to save endangered whale populations, nor should they be regarded as such.  Most large whale entanglements are an unintended consequence of commercial fishing operations that are regulated by state and federal governments. 

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Humpback Whale Facts:

• Though Sunday’s rescue had a happy ending, only three percent of all entangled humpback whales are reported to authorities every year;
• After centuries of hunting, North Atlantic humpback whale stocks began to slowly rebound late in the 20th century.  Today, about 12,000 humpback whales are estimated in the North Atlantic, with 900 seasonally feeding off the northeast coast of the United States;
• Humpbacks remain listed as an endangered species in the United States;
• Every year, between 48% and 65% of the photo-documented humpbacks in the northeast U.S. coastline exhibit scarring that was indicative of entanglement at some point in their lifetimes. 

   

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’30 Years of Discovery & Commitment’

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 applied research, conservation, environmental and education programs.  Its world-renowned whale disentanglement team operates under a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service. To learn more about whale disentanglement, and our other programs, visit PCCS on the web at:  www.coastalstudies.org.

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Editors:  For an images, please contact Theresa Barbo at the contact information below.  The following language must accompany the image:

"Image taken under NOAA-Fisheries permit 932-1489, under the authority of the U.S. Endangered Species and Marine Mammal protection Acts - please request PCCS permission for use."

PCCS Contact

Theresa Barbo

Director of Communications

ccsmedia@coastalstudies.org

508.487.3622 ext. 103       (o)

774.263.4219                    (c)