Salish Sea, [July 16, 2025] – On Wednesday, a humpback whale entangled in fishing gear was successfully freed by a team of authorized responders from The Whale Museum and Cascadia Research Collective. The groups are part of the Pacific Northwest Entanglement Response Network. The Network includes several organizations that pool their resources (staff, boats, tools, equipment, etc.) in order to respond to entangled whales in Washington and Oregon. In Washington, this includes The Whale Museum, SeaDoc Society, SR3, WDFW, and Cascadia Research Collective and overseen by NOAA Fisheries. The coordinated effort, spanning two countries and multiple organizations, saved the whale from a likely fatal outcome.
An entangled Humpback whale was reported on Monday in Canadian waters, and thanks to communication among Pacific Whale Watch Association (PWWA) members, whale watches around the region were on high alert to keep an eye out for the whale. On Tuesday, an Outer Island Excursions vessel sighted the whale in Rosario Strait, over 40 miles from the original report. Their team reported the whale and stayed with it, even dispatching a second vessel without passengers to maintain visual contact until responders from The Whale Museum in Friday Harbor arrived.
Responders from The Whale Museum documented and assessed the entanglement. After consulting with Cascadia’s advanced response team and NOAA Fisheries, they attached a tracking buoy to facilitate a full disentanglement effort the following day.
“Our recent training with Cascadia gave us the confidence and skills to safely attach telemetry equipment to the entangling gear,” said Erin Casellas, Field Operations Coordinator at The Whale Museum. “It was a critical step in ensuring we could track the whale until a full response was possible.”
Before dawn on Wednesday, the whale began moving west toward Port Angeles. Cascadia’s team trailered their vessel from Olympia, launching in Port Townsend, and began tracking signals from the tag, while The Whale Museum team transited from Friday Harbor to Orcas Island to pick up an inflatable boat from SeaDoc Society, an essential platform for close-in work around large whales.
Cascadia’s team relocated the whale off Dungeness Spit, and once the TMW team arrived, the small inflatable was deployed to start working on the entanglement. Approximately 80 feet of line was trailing from the whale, and multiple lines cut deep into its tail. Though the whale was not using its tail to swim, it propelled itself with its powerful front flippers, appearing to “fly” through the water as it travelled west down the Strait of Juan De Fuca. Responders attached large buoys to the trailing line to slow the whale and keep it at the surface. Underwater video taken of the whale (using a long pole with a GoPro attached at the end) showed the details of the entanglement configuration, enabling the team to determine the cuts required to free the whale.
The team needed to cut three lines tightly wrapping the whale: the lines wrapping each side of the fluke (left and right fluke blades) and the line wrapping around the tail stock. Using specialized knives mounted on long poles, responders carefully cut the entangling lines without injuring the whale. Drone footage documented the operation and confirmed the whale’s condition after release.
“As soon as the final line was cut, the whale began slowly swimming away,” said Doug Sandilands, a lead responder at Cascadia. “The injuries are significant, but we’re quite hopeful the whale will resume normal use of its tail in time. We’re hoping the whale will stay in the region long enough for the research and whale watching community to see it and document the recovery process.”
Jenn Tackaberry, also a lead responder with Cascadia, emphasized the importance of collaboration: “This case highlights the strength of cross-border partnerships and how important members of the PWWA are in the response network. Whale watching crews are the eyes on the water, and their willingness to stay with entangled whales until a response team arrives is often the difference between life and death. Without them, this whale would likely have suffered the same fate as the tailless whales seen last year in these same waters.”
The Pacific Northwest Entanglement Response Network is part of a national and global effort to reduce large whale entanglements through safe rescue operations, data collection, and prevention strategies. All response activities (including documentation, approaching the whale, attaching a telemetry tag, and removing gear) were conducted by trained and authorized responders under NOAA permit #24359, following international and national safety standards that prohibit entering the water and prioritize the safety of both the whale and the crew.
A grant from the San Juan Island Community Foundation covered the fuel and vessel costs incurred by The Whale Museum during the response, and Spyderco donated essential disentanglement cutting tools. Previously funded by NOAA Prescott grants, this was the first disentanglement of the year in Washington, and it was undertaken without federal funding. Many of the response organizations are now left scrambling to find new ways to fund this work and ensure other entangled whales have the same opportunity to be saved. Consider making a donation to The Whale Museum and Cascadia Research Collective to help support this work.