Highly-trained responders depend on boating community to be “eyes and ears” on the water NOAA Fisheries’ John Moran reaches with a pole to cut a line entangling a humpback whale in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Credit: NOAA The foundation of responding to entangled whales is the on-water community. NOAA’s Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network depends on […]
SITKA, ALASKA – The Allen Marine tour boat pushed off the dock at the Sitka Crescent Harbor on a clear crisp October afternoon with University of Alaska Southeast researchers, alumni and supporters of the university in search of humpback whales. It didn’t take long to find them. In just minutes, in Sitka Sound within clear […]
Members of NOAA’s North Pacific Large Whale Entanglement Response Team are thankful for Wednesday’s freeing of an entangled humpback whale in Sarkar Cove, north of Naukati on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska. NOAA received word of the possibly life-threatening entanglement on Tuesday, November 20. Dr. Fred Sharpe, an experienced member of the team and research […]
An NOAA-led team of marine mammal responders was able to free an entangled humpback whale early Saturday evening in Unalaska Bay, near Dutch Harbor, Alaska. The whale was first reported entangled on Monday, October 15. The whale had a tight wrap of line through the mouth and across its blowholes, as well as line and […]