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PCCS Whale Disentanglement Team in Florida

The Atlantic Large Whale Disentanglement Network Tracks Entangled Right Whale

(Provincetown, Cape Cod, MA) - Choppy seas and 20-knot winds off the coast of Florida on Monday hampered efforts by a disentanglement team from the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies (PCCS) to free a critically-endangered North Atlantic right whale whose flippers are tightly wrapped in ropes.

Guided by satellite telemetry and aided by a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission aircraft, team members David Morin, Scott Landry (PCCS) and Jamison Smith of NOAA Fisheries Service, working from a rigid hull inflatable (RIB), located the whale 15 miles offshore. After documenting and assessing the entanglement, they were joined by the United States Coast Guard Cutter Kingfisher carrying additional team members and equipment. Coping with difficult sea conditions, the team successfully removed approximately 100 feet of trailing gear before dark while following the whale more than 30 miles off shore. More importantly, disentanglers gained a critical understanding of the nature of this entanglement to help guide future attempts.

"Right whales are difficult to work with," explained PCCS Senior Scientist Dr. Charles "Stormy" Mayo, who oversaw the operation from aboard the Kingfisher. "The bulk of the gear has been removed from the whale; however we consider what remains to be life-threatening."

The PCCS Disentanglement Team will continue to track the whale's movements by satellite and make a second attempt at disentanglement when the weather clears.

The entangled whale was first reported entangled 20 miles off the Georgia coast on Saturday 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.

PCCS manages the Atlantic Large Whale Disentanglement Network (ALWDN,) supported in part by NOAA Fisheries Service, which coordinated Monday's event off Daytona Beach. 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.

In addition to PCCS, the following Network collaborators participated in Monday's event: NOAA Fisheries Service; Georgia Department of Natural Resources; Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission; the United States Coast Guard [especially the crew of the CC Kingfisher,] and Wildlife Trust. Researchers at the New England Aquarium (NEAq,) another Network collaborator, are using photographs to attempt to identify this whale from a catalog of known individuals.

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.

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Laura Engleby
Public Affairs, SE Region
NOAA Fisheries Service
o: (727) 551-5791
c: (786) 525-9612