100 feet of line, one young whale, six hours of patience: the San Clemente rescue

A fisherman spotted it first, around 9:30 in the morning, five miles off San Clemente, California: a young humpback, about 29 feet long, dragging roughly 100 feet of fishing line wrapped in layers across its underside, tail and the base of its tail fin. Three teams answered — SeaWorld San Diego, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center from Laguna Beach, and Entangled Whale Response Orange County, all partners in NOAA Fisheries' West Coast stranding network. Just before 3:30 p.m. they got close enough to cut sections of the twisted line; over several deep dives, the whale shook loose most of what remained, and by late afternoon, near San Clemente Pier, it had shed nearly all of it. Underwater video reviewed the next day confirmed the ending everyone had worked for: the whale is free, swimming well, with only a scar to show for its ordeal.

SDG 14 · Life below water — Mechanism: institutional program