OCEANSIDEOCEANSIDE — A team of rescuers and marine animal experts worked Sunday to free a humpback whale entangled in a piece of rope about 10 miles offshore from Oceanside but was unsuccessful, authorities said.
A group of whale watchers first spotted the whale swimming south off Huntington Beach, said Kim Peterson, curator for the SeaWorld San Diego rescue program.
About 2:45 p.m., the whale was seen again, off Oceanside. Staff from the Oceanside Fire Department, SeaWorld and Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Orange County were called out to the animal’s location.
The rescuers aboard a boat located the whale, Peterson said.
“What we could see was a line trailing at least 100 feet behind it,” Peterson said. “But what was attached on the other end we don’t know because it didn’t come up.”
Figuring out how the rope was attached to the animal was problematic because it refused to surface and was difficult to see underwater.
The team also had to track the whale, which was moving quickly, from a safe distance by using a drone to capture a bird’s-eye view, Fire Department officials said.
“If they (whales) react, or flip up their tail or something, they can flip a boat over or seriously injure people,” Peterson said. “So we want to be as safe as we possibly can and do our best to help the whale at the same time.”
Despite following the animal throughout the afternoon, the rescue attempt was unsuccessful as daylight waned and the whale traveled into waters south of the U.S.-Mexico border, Peterson said.
The rescue team received no additional reports in the days to follow, Peterson said.
The Fire Department said it would continue to remain vigilant in relocating the whale.
The SeaWorld rescue team successfully saved another entangled whale earlier this year, Peterson said. Officials said humpback whales traveling along the coast can sometimes become tangled in a variety of things, such as fishing nets and lines.
When a distressed whale is spotted, a network of rescue teams organized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are dispatched, Peterson said.
NOAA reported in March that 18 of the 30 whales found ensnared off the West Coast last year were humpbacks.
