August 19, 2019 — The Marine Animal Entanglement Response team (MAER) from the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) disentangled a humpback whale yesterday afternoon off of Chatham, MA.
A charter vessel discovered the whale early yesterday morning; they reported it to the CCS Hotline, then stood by the whale until they were relieved by a crew from USCG Chatham. USCG Chatham stood by until the CCS team, accompanied by trainees from Cascadia Research Collective and SR3, arrived on scene.
The female humpback, identified as the 2015 calf of Jabiru, had a buoy line lodged in her mouth and wrapped over her head; the trailing end of the line extended about 40 feet behind her flukes.