DALY CITY, Calif. (KGO) — Troubling drone footage reveals an entangled gray whale swimming off of the Peninsula coast Tuesday morning.
The video reveals the animal with its tail entangled with netting and dragging a buoy by the water.
“It’s comparatively pressing in the truth that if we do not take away the gear and the whale cannot get it off itself, it is most definitely going to die from it,” mentioned Justin Viezbicke.
Viezbicke works with the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.
He tells ABC7 Information his staff has been conscious of this whale for weeks and have been making an attempt to free it.
Viezbicke says it was first noticed already tangled off the coast of Orange County on the finish of March.
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“We had been really in a position to connect our satellite tv for pc tag to it and a few poly balls. And the explanation we do that’s to truly gradual the whale down and produce it to the floor,” Viezbickie mentioned.
Viezbicke says when his staff approached the whale to attempt to untangle it down south, it grew to become aggressive and so they needed to cease.
He says the concept behind the monitoring system was to regulate it because it swam additional north on its strategy to feeding grounds in Alaska.
As soon as the whale grew to become extra drained out, the staff would attempt to untangle it once more.
However, Viezbicke says, the monitoring system stopped working and so they misplaced monitor of the whale till he was noticed Tuesday right here close to the Bay Space.
“It is actually wrapped and caught on that tail and it isn’t going to be a straightforward activity to get it off,” he mentioned.
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After being noticed Tuesday morning, information of the entangled whale unfold on-line.
Researchers from the Marine Mammal Heart, NOAA and different teams went out to attempt to collect extra info on the scenario.
San Bruno resident Tony Corso noticed it on a Fb group and went out and shot the drone video with others trying on.
“There was only a normal consensus that this was horrible and this could not have occurred,” Corso mentioned.
Viezbicke says he is hoping they’re going to know extra within the coming days about when is likely to be the very best time to strategy the whale and attempt to get the gillnet off once more.
Within the meantime, he and his colleagues are asking the general public to maintain a watch out for the whale and report any sightings of it.
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