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We got a call on April 27th
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that there was an entangled humpback whale
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in Monterey Bay in the sactuary.
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(Narrator) Kathi is part of the whale
entanglement team.
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*A [inaudible] regulated
group of volunteers
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trained to respond to whales in distress.
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Usually in California
here along the west coast,
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we get eight calls per year.
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Finding the whale is the hardest
part of disentanglement.
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It's a big ocean and a small whale
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compared to the ocean.
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This time they were able to find
the whale and respond.
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We went out the next day
and we found the whale
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and we were able to cut off a crab pot
and 250 feet of line
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to remove the most life-threatening
part of the entanglement
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but there was still a tight wrap
on the peduncle,
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the tail stock where it meets the fluke.
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There are three tight wraps
deeply embedded
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and with some skin grown over.
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We knew we needed to get the wrap
off this whale.
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It was a sub adult whale,
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25 feet long approximately,
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which means that they're
going to grow to 40 - 50 feet.
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So as the whale grows,
the entanglement doesn't grow
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and we knew that would potentially be
the life-threatening thing.
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Unfortunately, conditions deteriorated
where it was unsafe to be out there,
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so we headed back to shore,
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knowing we had the
California Academy of Sciences