A federal marine mammal team was able to free an entangled whale calf Wednesday after trying to cut away a line for more than an hour in the ocean off Lanai — the first successful rescue done this season in Hawaii.
The calf, accompanied by its mother, was able to push the line off its body near the pectoral fins and swim away.
"It’s still in good shape," said Ed Lyman, the federal large whale entanglement response coordinator. "It’s going to be fine."
Lyman said the entangled whale calf, about 13 to 15 feet long, was diving and surfacing near its mother off Manele Harbor on Lanai and that the rescue team approached slowly and cautiously.
He said the whale calf was growing and that the line was beginning to pinch the skin.
"We definitely saved its life," said Lyman, an official with the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.
He said the team, using a knife attached to an extended pole, was successful in its second attempt to cut the line and that the calf was free from the lines shortly after 3:30 p.m.
Lyman said the team had tried five times to cut away the line from the same whale calf Sunday but was unsuccessful.
He said the number of whale entanglement reports is higher than usual this season, with five reports involving four whales so far.
He said that last season, his team responded to a couple of reports of entanglement. One of the rescues was successful, but another involving an entangled calf wasn’t because the mother whale and her two escorts kept the team away.
Lyman said the rescue Wednesday was successful partially because the boaters who spotted the whale cooperated to stay within eyesight of the calf until the federal rescue team arrived.
In the past, the rescue team has sometimes been unable to locate the entangled whale after an initial report from a boat.
But the situation was different with boaters in this instance.
"We were getting such cooperation," Lyman said. "It was amazing."
The whale was spotted about 3⁄4 mile off Manele Bay.
Those involved in assisting in the rescue included Pacific Whale Foundation’s Ocean Odyssey and the Na Pali Explorer, before the arrival of the rescue team, according to the foundation.
The foundation said Ocean Odyssey Capt. Casey Cohan had been driving the rescue boat Sunday and was able to provide positive identification of the entangled calf.
