FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: IMAGE AVAILABLE
Media Release 5.2

PCCS Contacts: Tanya Grady, 508.487.3622 x 103
                        Scott Landry, 508.487.3623 x 102

PCCS Frees Entangled Right Whale

The adult male right whale known to researchers as 2470 had two constricting wraps of the left fluke and a significant amount of trailing rope. All entangling gear was removed and retained.

Right whale 2470 was feeding just below the surface with other right and sei whales when an aerial team with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) sighted it. The PCCS response team was on the water about two hours away and responded to the call. On scene, the PCCS team documented two wraps of heavy rope around the left fluke blade that were held in place by loops of rope, leading to a bundle of rope that appeared to keep constant pressure on the fluke wraps. After a series of attempts, both wraps were cut and all of the rope came free as the whale worked its flukes up and down. All of the rope was retrieved.

Prior to Thursday, the whale was seen in March 2009 in Cape Cod Bay by the PCCS aerial survey team, and was gear free at that time. Researchers do not know where the whale first picked up the entangling rope. About 75 percent of North Atlantic right whales exhibit scars from a previous entanglement. Human-caused mortalities, vessel strikes and entanglements in commercial fishing gear, add significantly to the death rate for North Atlantic right whales.

The Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies is a non-profit organization, established in 1976 dedicated to preserving and protecting marine mammals and ecosystems in the Gulf of Maine and beyond through applied research, education, public policy initiatives and management strategies. The Marine Animal Entanglement Response Program coordinates whale rescue efforts along southeastern New England under a federal permit issued by NOAA.

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