Weather Hampers Effort to Rescue Entangled Whale

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The entangled right whale. Image: U.S. Coast Guard

Officials hope to rescue a rare right whale entangled in rope and fishing gear off the Florida coast.

Severe weather has the rescue team stuck in port today, however.

Right whales are the most critically endangered in the Atlantic, with only about 300 in existence, scientists say. This is not the first one to be snared. A similar rescue of an entangled right whale was successful last December.

The problem is growing. A recent study found that huge swaths of the Pacific Ocean are loaded with discarded fishing nets that entangle marine mammals, turtles and sea birds.

Right whales spend summers feeding off the coast of Canada and New England, then travel south during the winter to calving and nursery areas.

"We've tracked the whale's movement since Saturday and it continues to head south, which is typical behavior for right whales at this time of year," said Barb Zoodsma a marine mammal biologist and right whale recovery program coordinator for NOAA Fisheries Service Southeast.

Given the whale's speed and the weather forecast, it could take days or weeks to get it disentangled, officials said.

Live Science Staff
Live Science Staff
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