PROVINCETOWN, MA – The Marine Animal Entanglement Response (MAER) team at the Center for Coastal Studies is working to disentangle a North Atlantic right whale that has fishing gear caught in his mouth. The young whale, known as #5110, has been entangled since at least December of last year. While attempts to disentangle the whale last Thursday were successful at removing some gear, the entanglement is still considered to be likely lethal. The team is monitoring weather conditions for further attempts.
MAER Director Scott Landry said that “this will be a particularly challenging case to solve. While there may be enough entangling gear on the whale to kill him over the long term, there is not enough gear for us to use techniques we would normally use. With that in mind I would temper expectations for this case.”
The whale, a five-year-old male, was first discovered entangled off Georges Bank last December by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center aerial survey team. A disentanglement attempt was not mounted at that time since the whale was too far offshore for the team to be on scene before sunset. Documentation from the sighting showed that the whale had multiple ropes and buoys caught around its upper jaw and was free-swimming with its entanglement.
The whale was next seen again on April 10 by the CCS aerial survey in Cape Cod Bay. The MAER team responded out of Provincetown, MA and managed to remove some of the entangling gear using a specialized grappling hook thrown into its entanglement. The team spent several more hours attempting to approach the whale without success. The whale was seen again on April 14 and 15, feeding within a large aggregation of right whales. The MAER team is monitoring weather conditions for further attempts to disentangle the whale.
Boaters, kayakers, paddle-boarders, swimmers and light aircraft and drone pilots are reminded that it is illegal to approach a North Atlantic right whale within 500 yards without a federal research permit. However, whales often feed very close to shore, offering watchers on the beach unbeatable views of one of the rarest of the marine mammals.
CCS right whale research and response operations are conducted in partnership with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and NOAA under federal permits issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service. Support also comes from the Massachusetts Environmental Trust and contributions from other foundations, businesses and CCS supporters through the Center’s Right Whale Emergency Initiative.
Photo: CCS MAER team during disentanglement efforts. CCS Image, taken under NOAA permit 24359.