April 17, 2018 — PROVINCETOWN, Mass. — A prolific North Atlantic right whale mother named Kleenex may eventually be freed from fishing line wrapped around her jaw for the past several years after a rescue effort Thursday on Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.
“This is exactly the individual we are desperate to help,” said Scott Landry, who leads the center’s efforts to free marine animals from fishing gear.
The adult female, well-known to researchers, had been carrying rope wrapped around her upper jaw for at least three years, according to documented sightings. Because there was no trailing line on the rope, the usual technique of slowing the whale and keeping it at the surface by attaching buoys to the entanglement couldn’t be used, Landry said. Instead, the rescuers used a cutting arrow fired from the deck of the rescue boat to damage the rope on the animal, he said. The weakened rope should deteriorate and be shed by the whale over time, Landry said.
The entanglement of female right whales in fishing gear has been linked to energy depletion and inability of the females to sustain a pregnancy and a year of nursing a calf.
The critically endangered right whales need robust calving to help stop a decline in population that has has been detected since 2010, according to researchers.