An entangled humpback whale was spotted off the coast of Newport Beach, and after an unsuccessful attempt to free the animal, rescue crews say it’s a tricky task.
The whale was first spotted about a week ago by a whale watchers team.
Photos show the humpback with a rope extending from its mouth and wrapped around its fin.
“We realized at that moment that, ‘Oh my goodness, it was entangled,'” said Jessica Rodriguez, the Education and Communications Manager with Newport Landing and Davey’s Locker Whale Watching. “Our whale watching boats alerted NOAA and the disentanglement team came onto the scene attempted to disentangle the whale that day.”
However, they couldn’t do it.
“It’s like right here around the shoulder area,” she said. “It’s wrapped through the mouth. It’s a really difficult entanglement to undo on the whale.”
Rodriguez said the entanglement team would need to cut the rope near the whale’s eye to set it free, but that poses danger. The agitated humpback could hit them with its tail or flipper.