A 40-foot gray whale that was tangled in fishing line off the Orange County coast went missing Wednesday after rescue teams scoured the waters off the SoCal coast.
The whale was first spotted on Tuesday off the coast of San Clemente. Rescuers in chase boats managed to cut away some of the fishing line snarled around the whale's left pectoral fin, another line is entangled around the mouth of the animal.
An ocean-wide search was launched Wednesday afternoon, when whale-watching and commercial fishing boats as well as Coast Guard helicopters were deployed to find the marine mammal.
"This particular whale has at least four floats on it," said Jack Van Dyke with the Dana Wharf. "So if it's up towards the surface, we should be able to find it."
The whale was trailing between 50 and 100 feet of line stuck to its left pectoral fin and another line is entangled around its mouth. That line, experts said, will not come off the whale naturally.
Rescuers believe the line was attached to a crab pod or lobster trap, which were not likely from the United States, which requires them to be numbered.
The search has spanned days, and was suspended as darkness fell Tuesday night.
The whale has not been seen since. When last spotted, the whale appeared to be heading west.
"Which is not a good thing," said Dean Gomersall, of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center. "We want the animal to go either north or south and stay close to the coastline so we can locate it better. His normal pattern would be to go north this time of year, and that's what we're hoping for."
Search teams set out early Wednesday to resume rescue operations. A U.S. Coast Guard crew left Dana Point Harbor at about 6:30 a.m.
A team from Pacific Marine Mammal Center also was assembled for the search.
Just after 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, crews called it a night after making "significant" progress to de-tangle the whale, said Melissa Sciacca, director of Pacific Marine Mammal Center.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
The location of the entanglement poses the highest risk to the rescue team, she said. But it's estimated that the snarl is fairly new.
Rescuers Tuesday trailed closely behind the animal (video below) and tagged it with three buoys, a common practice with whale rescues, this one being the third off Southern California's coast in a month.
"Unfortunately, this is more common than people realize," said Peter Wallerstein, director of Marine Animal Rescue.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg," Wallerstein said. "They are just the ones that are reported, there are many more that aren't reported."
Whales pick up the gear mostly on their northern migration up to Baja, he said.
Buoys are often attached to a small boat to slow the whales down or to make them easier to spot, said Wallerstein, who recently helped rescue an entangled grey whale near Palos Verdes.
Rescuers would need to use a special hooking knife attached to a pole to cut the netting, he said.
Follow NBCLA for the latest LA news, events and entertainment: iPhone/iPad App | Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | Instagram | RSS | Text Alerts | Email Alerts
