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Public urged to report sightings of entangled right whale
The Center for Coastal Studies' Marine Animal Entanglement Response team is continuing efforts after responding last weekend in Cape Cod Bay.
RIGHT WHALES:
The Center for Coastal Studies is asking the public to help locate an entangled North Atlantic right whale after its Marine Animal Entanglement Response team responded to the animal over the weekend, according to a statement from CCS.
Anyone who spots the whale is urged to call the MAER hotline at 1-800-900-3622 or the U.S. Coast Guard on VHF Channel 16, the statement says.
The whale, a yearling, was first reported Saturday in Cape Cod Bay with fishing gear trailing from its body, CCS said. The initial report came from a Plymouth resident using a spotting scope to watch whales in the bay.
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The MAER team responded from Provincetown aboard its vessel Ibis and located the whale with fishing rope wrapped around the base of its tail, according to CCS.
“With wind and sea state worsening the team chose to outfit the entanglement on the whale with a tracking buoy, hoping to track the whale overnight, with better sea conditions forecasted the following day,” the statement reads.
Between Saturday night and Sunday morning, the whale traveled east out of Cape Cod Bay, CCS said.
On Sunday, the team relocated the animal east of Truro and attempted to slow it by adding large buoys and a sea anchor, which would have allowed responders to cut away the remaining rope, according to the statement. Instead, part of the fishing gear broke free and was recovered, along with the tracking buoy.
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The whale then swam off with some rope wrapped around its tail, the statement says.
CCS noted there is a chance the animal could shed the remaining entanglement, and that additional sightings would help responders access its condition.
The New England Aquarium identified the whale as the 2025 calf of the right whale known as Monarch, according to the statement. The animal had been seen feeding unentangled in Cape Cod Bay by CCS’s aerial survey team about a week earlier.
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