| Monday, August 15, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Theresa M. Barbo
(508) 487-3622 x103
(774) 353-8034
ccsmedia@coastalstudies.org
PCCS Disentangles Humpback Whale in Gulf of Maine
Whale Anchored in Offshore Lobster Gear West of Browns Bank
(Provincetown, Cape Cod, MA) - In a race against time and weather, and a testament to
international collaboration, a team from the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies (PCCS) cut free a humpback whale entangled in offshore lobster gear on Browns Bank 70 nautical miles southwest of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, in Canadian waters in the Gulf of Maine, on Sunday afternoon.
After the team - Scott Landry of PCCS and David Mattila of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary - cut the lines and freed the whale, it swam away. Without intervention and with an entanglement this severe, the humpback whale's life was in immediate danger.
A Canadian fishing vessel reported the entanglement to the Canadian Coast Guard on Friday, which then flew over the area to photograph the whale's entanglement and assess its health.
The whale was anchored to fixed lobster gear, which had trapped the whale for at least three days. The entanglement was complex: the whale carried multiple wraps of heavy rope around its flippers and body.
Worsening weather played a role in planning a disentanglement mission. At sunrise on Saturday, fog lowered visibility to near zero, with thunderstorms and 20-knot winds reported. On Sunday morning, 4-and-a-half foot waves were reported every 11 seconds. Despite the bad weather, the PCCS team worked within a small weather window and successfully disentangled the humpback whale southwest of Nova Scotia and to the northeast of Gloucester. The team approached the humpback whale from an inflatable boat launched from the R/V Shearwater on its annual humpback whale research cruise in the Gulf of Maine led by Jooke Robbins.
Special thanks to: the crew of the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Fisheries research vessel, Delaware II, which arrived in the vicinity late Friday night ready to render assistance, and to the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO.) Both the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards stood ready to assist PCCS, as well as the Wanderbird, an educational touring vessel working in the area. The Wanderbird is a member of the Atlantic Large Whale Disentanglement Network, which PCCS manages.
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The Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies is committed to protecting marine mammals and coastal ecosystems through independent public education, scientific research, and conservation programs, and through collaborations with government, private and non-profit institutions. Since its founding in 1976, PCCS has become internationally renowned for its whale research and rescue programs.
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Theresa M. Barbo
Director of Communications
Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies
(508) 487-3622 x103 (office)
(774) 353-8034 (mobile)
ccsmedia@coastalstudies.org
Scott Landry
Whale Disentanglement Program
(508) 487-3623 x102
sclandry@coastalstudies.org
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