Rescuers tried for a second day Wednesday to free a young humpback whale tangled in rope, and while they enjoyed some success in removing hundreds of feet line, the remaining rope still posed a threat to the animal's life.
Earlier in the day, rescuers suffered a setback when a radio transmitter attached to the animal on Tuesday fell off and they lost track of it. But later in the day, it was spotted again by a Pacific Whale Foundation tour boat, and another transmitter was connected to the juvenile whale.
"We got it back on," said Ed Lyman, marine mammal response manager for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.
And, while the transmitter was being reconnected, rescuers noticed that rope that had been there a day earlier was gone, Lyman said.
"It looks like we may have taken hundreds of feet of line off that whale," he said, adding that that success makes him "a little more optimistic" about the whale's chances for survival.
Lyman said the rescue crew came close to removing even more line, but came up short.
There's rope coming through the whale's mouth and back over its blowhole, he said. About 2 to 3 feet behind the blowhole, there's a knot of rope, and from there, two lines run behind the animal.
The remaining line still poses a threat to the life of the whale, he said. And rescuers will try again today to locate the whale and take off the remaining line.
Because the rope is cheap, polypropylene line, Lyman said it's promising that it appears to break off easily, and he hoped more of it would break and fall off on its own.
"But what I would rather do is get a hold of that whale and cut or pull on (the rope) to break it," he said.
The weather forecast for today was favorable for what rescuers want to do today, he said.
Lyman said the last time they saw the whale around 5:15 p.m. Wednesday it was about a mile off shore between the pali tunnel and Olowalu.
The whale has been described as a juvenile, probably between 2 and 5 years old, and 30 to 35 feet long. Lyman has previously said the whale looked to be in poor health.
A Pacific Whale Foundation tour boat initially spotted and reported the entangled whale on Tuesday, and stayed with it, along with another boater and a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter, until rescuers arrived. They were unable to free the whale before it moved into rough water, so they attached the transmitter.
Lyman again gave credit to the foundation and other boaters for being key in reporting the whale's location on Wednesday.
Foundation spokeswoman Anne Rillero said a PWF boat helped rescuers find the whale after the first transmitter fell off.
Anyone who sees the humpback or another entangled whale should not get too close and should avoid getting behind the animal where ropes could get caught in a boat's propellers.
To report an entangled or distressed whale, call (888) 256-9840.
