Entanglement in discarded fishing nets and other plastics items kills tens of thousands of marine animals every year. The northern right whale is an extremely endangered marine mammal, with only about 300 surviving in the North Atlantic. Although commercial whaling is no longer a factor in their decline, other human actions continue to have an impact. They have no dorsal fin. The tail, or fluke, is deeply notched in the middle and is dark on the top and bottom.
Right whales produce a distinctive V-shaped blow.
For some Coast Guard units, search and rescue is taking on a whole different meaning. No longer are people and property the only recipients of rescue efforts. Thanks to a new initiative, the Coast Guard is now actively working with other agencies to assist whales that become entangled in fishing gear. A recent whale disentanglement exercise paid dividends as crews from various units assisted in saving two entangled whales this summer. The first of these rescues took place less than three weeks after the Coast Guard, the Center for Coastal Studies, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Massachusetts Environmental Police participated in a whale entanglement exercise designed to practice the rapid response plan for just such an incident.