There were 64 large whale entanglement cases documented in 2023—a decrease from 2022 and below the historical average. NOAA Fisheries has released the National Report on Large Whale Entanglements Confirmed in the United States in 2023. There were 64 confirmed large whale entanglement cases nationally in 2023. This is less than the 67 confirmed large whale […]
Community support key to removing a plastic packing band from sea lion’s neck. For the second year in a row, three experts successfully freed an entangled Steller sea lion in Kodiak. NOAA Fisheries’ Kim Raum-Suryan and Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Lauri Jemison, along with veterinarian Dr. Kate Savage, had been here before. In 2023, […]
NOAA and the U.S. Coast Guard worked together this 4th of July to free an entangled humpback whale in the Port of Valdez, Prince William Sound. The NOAA Fisheries Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Hotline received numerous reports late afternoon on July 3. A young humpback whale was entangled in the middle of the Port […]
New technical memorandum provides 31 years of killer whale entanglement history in Alaska. NOAA Fisheries has released a new technical memo, Killer Whale Entanglements in Alaska: Summary Report 1991–2022. It provides comprehensive detail of 37 reported killer whale entanglement cases in Alaska over the past three decades. This technical memo has been in development since spring […]