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WHALE 911: Rescue coordinator Edward Lyman '88G, above, pursues an entangled humpback whale, below.

Whales get caught in everything from fishing gear to buoy lines, moorings to marine debris. In some waters, as many as 75 percent of humpbacks bear scars of recent entanglements. Some great whales survive months entangled in gear, but over time, the lines can eventually rub the skin raw, causing wounds and infection and even lost limbs. Rope wrapped around a whale's tail, for example, can cut off circulation, causing the tail to become necrotic, and making it impossible for the whale to swim fast enough to feed.

Freeing whales, Lyman points out, is only half the battle. The gear retrieved provides important data about which fishing areas and types of gear are of primary concern. He also records each rescue, posting photos and videos on the sanctuary web site, providing a useful database of rescue information. Matilla, meanwhile, who founded the disentanglement program in Hawaii, trains rescue teams in Australia, Korea, Mexico and other countries around the world, building an international disentanglement network. The global nature of the whale entanglement issue is evident even in a single rescue: humpbacks in Hawaii are often found to be trailing gear from Alaskan waters, 2,500 miles north.

When calving season for the humpbacks is over in Hawaii, Lyman migrates with the whales, following them to their Alaskan feeding grounds, where he does workshops with fishermen. "The last thing they want to do is catch a whale," says Lyman, pointing out that it's costly for fishermen to lose gear this way. And, much as he relishes watching an entangled whale swim free, the number of whales Lyman rescues represents only a minute fraction of a very large problem. Some estimates suggest that 300,000 cetaceans (including whales and dolphins) worldwide become entangled each year in fishing gear. This figure, of course, includes only the ones who survive and bear the scars of their encounters. Others, who die before they can break free or be rescued, sink to the ocean floor and are never counted.

Much of Lyman's work with fishermen is focused on trying to come up with practical solutions to the problem. One idea being implemented in some coastal waters is the use of sinking lines, instead of buoyant ones, between traps. "A sinking line lies on the bottom, instead of in the water column where a whale can snag it in its mouth," explains Lyman. Of course, sinking line is more expensive because it's heavier, so the idea has met with some resistance from fishermen, who are concerned about costs.

Lyman has addressed these issues with fishermen on the East Coast, too, where the right whale, which feeds in heavily traveled shipping lanes, also suffers from entanglement. The 60-ton creatures are tireless swimmers and difficult to free because of their stamina and strength. But with a mere 350 right whales left in the North Atlantic, even one death due to entanglement is a significant loss. It's true that rescuing one whale, no matter how big, represents only a small victory in a literal sea of troubles. Still, every whale cut free from the fetters of manmade gear is yet one more reason to hope that, in the end, we can find a way to save all the giants of the deep. ~

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