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Chemical sedation used to free whale
Scientists from NOAA Fisheries Service and its state and nonprofit partners successfully used at sea chemical sedation to help cut the remaining ropes from a young North Atlantic right whale recently off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The sedative given to the whale allowed the disentanglement team to safely approach the animal and remove 50 feet of rope which was wrapped through its mouth and around its flippers. This is only the second time a free swimming whale has been successfully sedated to enable disentanglement efforts, the first time a whale was successfully sedated and disentangled was in March 2009 off the coast of Florida. It's less stressful for the animal, minimises the amount of time spent working on the whales while maximising the effectiveness of disentanglement operations. The young female whale, estimated to be approximately 30 feet long, was originally observed entangled on Christmas Day by an aerial survey team.
On December 30, a disentanglement team were able to remove 150 feet of rope from the whale, but additional rope remained. NOAA and its partners continued to track the animal via satellite tag to determine if the animal would shed the remaining gear on its own. Calm weather conditions were necessary before attempting further intervention. During this response, scientists used for the first time a special digital monitoring tag which recorded the whale's behavior before, during, and after sedation. After disentangling the whale, scientists administered a dose of antibiotics to treat entanglement wounds and drug to reverse the sedation. The whale will be tracked up to 30-days via a temporary satellite tag.
Fishing gear removed from this whale included ropes and wire mesh
material, similar to what is found in the trap or pot fisheries for fish, crab and lobster along the mid-Atlantic, northeast U.S., and Canadian coasts. However, the specific fishery and its geographic origin are pending examination by experts at NOAA's Fisheries Service. With only 300-400 in existence, North Atlantic right whales are among the most endangered whales in the world. They are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973 and the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. Vessel strikes and entanglement in fixed fishing gear are the two greatest threats to their recovery.
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