By Longtime ODA Volunteer and Advisory Board Member Mike Wynd, Rebreather Diver & Equipment Specialist

On April 9^th this year, NOAA’s Large Whale Entanglement Response Team were alerted to a whale in distress off Rancho Palos Verdes, Los Angeles. The team consisted of members from the Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angles (MMCCLA) who provided the inflatable chase boat and a support boat, and Entangled Whale Response Orange County (EWROC) who made available crew for the inflatable, while NOAA staff led the on-water response.

Watch the intense rescue:

The eagle-eyed Palos Verdes shoreside community had noticed a humpback whale dragging a buoy, contacted authorities, and when the Response Team arrived it became clear that the whale was entangled in a gillnet…and possibly more. At this point, it wasn’t moving. It was essentially “anchored” in place.

It turns out the whale had first become entangled in the gill net and then got further entangled by the ropes attached to the three crab traps. Because of the identification tags on the buoys, we learned that they were originally positioned off Palos Verdes which means that poor whale had dragged a bunch of gillnet and three crab traps 2 miles!

ODA is a member of the Large Whale Entanglement Response Team, so our contact at NOAA, Justin Viezbicke, contacted us to help with "part two" of the rescue and cleanup effort.

NOAA’s Disentanglement Work

It took over two hours for the Response Team to attach a telemetry buoy (a floating device that collects and transmits data from underwater instruments) to the trailing over 225 feet (70 meters) of gillnet and cut it at a point where the whale was released from whatever had ensnared it to the bottom. At this point the whale took off dragging the remaining net with its attached telemetry buoy giving the Team a means by which to follow. Note: The Response Team was able to recover the majority of the gillnet.

Another hour-and-a-half had the whale completely freed, and the Response Team recovered of gillnet. Upon returning to the original “anchor” location they found themselves unable to lift what had previously been attached to the whale, and at this point the Ocean Defenders Alliance (ODA) was contacted asking for assistance in removing the debris.

ODA’s Expertise in Action

The weather worked against us over the following weeks, and it wasn’t until the 3^rd of May before we were able to address the site. The ODA volunteer team comprised of ODA President and Founder Kurt Lieber and volunteers Greg Kaganovsky onboard as deckhands, Kim Cardenas providing Safety Diver support, and Craig LaPorte and myself working as Recovery Divers.

Craig had kindly offered his boat, Sanity Breath, for this project saving a long trek down the coast from Channel Islands Harbor for ODA’s flagship vessel Mr. Barkers LegaSea. During the previous weeks, he had also confirmed the remaining gillnet’s position both from the sea and by air with a drone. Consequently, we knew exactly where we had to go but were still unsure about what we were likely to find.

The run from Redondo Beach, where Sanity Breath is berthed down to the site, took a little over forty minutes and it wasn’t long before we had the pink buoy that was originally spotted by the Palos Verdes locals in sight. It was a grey day, the water was green with a recent algal bloom, but the sea was calm despite it all looking very somber.

The dive plan was discussed. Both Craig and I were diving rebreathers giving us the benefit of time. The depth of the water was around 120 feet (37 meters), not so crazy-deep that it would prevent us from both recovering the debris as well as having the opportunity to document the site. Anyone can see what we pull out on the surface but relatively few get to see what ghost fishing gear looks like on the bottom.

We would both be on scooters carrying cameras and video lights, so we were big, bulky, and not particularly streamlined. This is where Kim’s role became crucial. Diving around fine mesh net like gillnet provides an enhanced opportunity for entanglement. She being a clean, single-cylinder diver would be there to assist should either Craig or I have an issue. If a Surface Marker Buoy was to come to the surface she would be in the water in an instant. Given the likely visibility, Craig would descend down the gillnet floatline with one end of a guide-reel while I descended down the anchor with the other end. That way we would be able to find our way back to the anchor line to complete any required decompression once we had lifted whatever we found on the bottom.

Craig did a great job of anchoring the boat right up close to the buoy, but once in the water it wasn’t so close that I could see him as we descended. We were definitely going to need that guideline! Fortunately, current and tide had wound the gillnet together and there was very little of it floating freely in the current. We had expected to find the net caught around something on the bottom, and it indeed was. Two crab traps!

It was dark with virtually no ambient light and at best less than 10 feet (3 meters) of visibility adding to the hazards was a very silty environment, but fortunately there was just a touch of current so anything we stirred up was moved along relatively quickly. Regardless, we’d have to work carefully.

Craig made the right decision after finding a line leading off from the amassed pile of traps and gillnet to go out and assess what was actually there, and after a good 150 feet or so (45 meters) we found a third trap!

This one had about twenty crabs in it. Craig worked to float this one to the surface while I videoed and then we returned to the original pile and sent that up as well.

In all, we had spent just over 40 minutes at depth completing the recovery followed by another 30 minutes slowly ascending and decompressing.

Once back on the boat we chased down the two clusters of lift bags getting everything onboard. Despite being smaller than the lobster traps we’re used to, it was a tight fit getting the three traps, gillnet and line onto the back deck. Kurt and Kim liberated the crabs from their traps allowing them to live another day, while Greg, Craig, and I got everything stowed for the trip home.

I’d like to thank Justin Viezbicke from NOAA Fisheries for very generously providing all of the video footage that was captured on the day that they freed the whale. Having that at hand helped complete this story and is ample evidence of the dedication and skill of the Large Whale Entanglement Response Team. We at the ODA were privileged to be considered to complete the cleanup and ensure another whale didn’t get entangled by this same debris.

If you'd like to see ODA continue to be able to work with the NOAA rescue team and do all of our other ocean cleanup work, we welcome and appreciate your support!