Whale Saved From Death By Entanglement Off New England Coast

Members of the Marine Animal Entanglement Response team saved a whale named Valley this week from certain death, after the animal became entangled and eventually anchored by both line and heavy gear.

The heroes, or rock stars, as commentators on Facebook have been calling them this week, came to the rescue the distressed animal after a group on a whale watch excursion took notice of it.  Word eventually made it's way to members of the Marine Animal Entanglement Response at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Massachusetts, a non-profit research and rescue organization.

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The group's Facebook post tells us that Valley the whale was discovered Tuesday afternoon and when they got to her they attached a satellite tracking device to the entangled line.  During the night she traveled 25 miles to just outside of Boston Harbor when she became entangled even further and anchored by heavy gear on the ocean floor.

Team members were able to use a cutting tool attached to a 30-foot long pole to cut her free, but not before attaching buoys to the line that eventually pulled the entanglement from her.

Valley swam away happier than a fish at high tide.

As we're all well aware by now, whales, or more specifically North Atlantic Right Whales, are an endangered specie, with only 300 to 400 of them left on the planet. These whales are mostly killed by being struck by a passing boat or ship, or by becoming entangled in fishing line.

Over the past few years conservationists and the fishing industry have struggled to come to a solution to save them, with Maine fishermen recently rallying at the State House in Augusta to voice their disapproval at submitted government recommendations.

We truly hope that at some point, somehow,  these whales are saved from extinction so that future generations here in Maine can see them frolic in the water like this one seen just off Blue Hill Bay last year.

If you happen across an entangled whale or any other marine animal that may be distressed you can call the State of Maine Department of Marine Resources Hotline at 1-800-532-9551.