pstrongThe Marine Animal Rescue Team Saves a Whale/strong/p
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img alt=”whale” height=”267″ src=”https://friendsofanimals.org/img/marine/whale.jpg ” width=”400″ /
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font size=”1″iWhale with rope around fluke/i/font/div
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pWe were in Redondo searching for a sea lion that has a wound caused by gill net when Baywatch Redondo contacted us about a possible whale entanglement off Manhattan Beach. Brian and Lars on Baywatch went out to investigate while we gathered some whale rescue gear from the truck. Baywatch confirmed it was a young gray whale with rope line trailing from its fluke. When MAR arrived in our Zodiac, we observed a 20 foot gray whale with rope line tightly wrapped around its tail. The small whale was trailing about 10 feet of line on either side of it. We wasted no time and began our approach to attempt to free the whale.br /
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By this time the whale was close to shore. The line was so tightly wrapped around the fluke the first attempts to cut it free were unsuccessful. Then we were able to snag the trailing line and pull ourselves closer to the whale. We maneuvered ourselves to the fluke. I held the trailing line that was attached to the whale and Mike worked to cut the entanglement. After a few minutes of struggling to reach the entanglement, Mike made the cut and the rope line was removed from the whale. The whale was free from entanglement./p
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img alt=”whale rescue” height=”267″ src=”https://friendsofanimals.org/img/marine/whale rescue.jpg ” width=”400″ /
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font size=”1″iThe Marine Animal Rescue Team/i/font/div
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pAlthough we removed one threat to the whale, we are still concerned about the emaciated young whale’s health. LA County Lifeguards and MAR will monitor the whale’s condition while it remains in the area. Thanks to Baywatch Redondo for the assistance. Peter Wallerstein Marine Animal Rescue Specialist Friends of Animals/p