Experts cut whale free from 280ft fishing line

US wildlife experts cut away more than 280ft of commercial fishing line being dragged by an endangered right whale off the Georgia coast, though some of the heavy rope had to be left tangled in the whale’s mouth.

Entanglement in commercial fishing gear and collisions with ships off the East Coast are considered the greatest threats to the right whale’s survival.

Experts estimate only about 450 of the large whales remain. Each winter they migrate to the warmer waters off Georgia and Florida to give birth to their calves.

It was the first time since 2011 that a right whale snared in fishing gear has been spotted offshore in the south-east, said Clay George, a marine mammal biologist for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

He was part of the team that got close enough to the 30-foot whale to sever the three-quarters-inch fishing line using a grappling hook equipped with cutting blades.

“We feel like what we did gives the whale a fighting chance to shed the remainder of the rope on its own,” said Mr George, who estimated the whale is still dragging about 20 feet of the rope woven with lead weights.

“The real take-home message here is we can’t just go out and save and fix every whale that shows up entangled. In some cases it’s just completely impossible to disentangle that whale.”