Sedation used to free whale

For the first time ever, a North Atlantic right whale that had been severely entangled in fishing gear, was administered a sedation mixture that made it possible for rescuers to remove 90 percent of the entanglement.

The rescue involved the efforts of a multi-institutional team who worked for two days to free the animal. They were assisted by an aerial survey plane and eventually succeeded in injecting the 40-foot, 40,000-pound whale with a mixture of sedatives that allowed them to cut away the gear that had wrapped around the animal’s head.

This new tool enhances fishing gear removal from entangled whales and minimises the added stress from repeated boat approaches to the animals.

The typical success rate for freeing right whales from fishing gear is about 50 percent due largely in part to the difficulties in getting close enough to cut the entangling gear. This particular whale was first sighted entangled east of Brunswick, US by the Georgia Wildlife Trust aerial survey team, which noted multiple lengths of heavy line cutting in to the whale’s upper jaw, and left lip and trailing behind the animal. It was tagged with a telemetry buoy to allow it to be tracked. The team made several attempts to free the whale over several weeks without success, however by increasing the dosage it meant the animal took shallower, more frequent breaths. There were veterinarians on stand by and although the animal remains in very poor condition the disentanglement will give it a better chance for survival.