Humpback whale entangled in 900 feet of fishing line and traps, California rescuers say
A four-hour rescue effort Friday freed a 35-foot humpback whale entangled in 900 feet of line and loaded down by six fishing traps, KGTV reported.
A SeaWorld rescue team untangled the whale, enabling it to swim and forage, SeaWorld wrote on Facebook with a video of the effort.
A local birdwatcher spotted the whale on Thursday off La Jolla, north of San Diego, the Times of San Diego reported.
Without help, the whale would have died “from not being able to swim and find food,” a SeaWorld spokesperson said, according to KNSD.
SeaWorld has conducted 36,000 rescues of “sea lions, seals, dolphins, whales, turtles and birds” over the past 55 years, according to its Facebook post.
This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 12:29 PM.