By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES, June 28 (Reuters) – Marine mammal rescue groups alerted boaters off Southern California on Tuesday to be looking out for a blue whale ensnared within the rigging of a industrial crab entice, a day after preliminary efforts to free the large creature failed.

Rescuers spent a whole day making an attempt to chop free the 80-foot-long (24-meter-long) whale on Monday, ending the operation round dusk, and hoped for a second probability at disentangling the distressed animal, authorities mentioned.

As of late Tuesday, the whale and a tell-tale string of yellow-and-orange buoys trailing behind it remained out of sight, mentioned Gisele Anderson, whose husband, Dave, runs a fleet of whale-watching tour vessels concerned within the effort.

The whale was noticed about 30 miles (48 km) off San Diego over the weekend and once more on Monday close to Dana Point, about 65 miles (105 km) to the north, by the crew of Captain Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari, Anderson mentioned.

Blue whales, an endangered species, develop as much as 100 toes (30 meters) in size and weigh near 200 tons, rating as the biggest residing animals on Earth.

Whale entanglements usually are not unusual, and may show deadly, in keeping with Michael Milstein, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

“The animal has to work that much harder pulling that gear around for it to survive,” Milstein mentioned. “It’s going to be a long-term debilitating problem for the whale if it doesn’t get free.”

Last yr, 61 whales had been discovered caught in fishing gear, crab pots and netting and almost 40 have been reported thus far this yr alongside the U.S. West Coast, Milstein mentioned.

Most are grey and humpback whales, which are inclined to swim nearer to shore, whereas blue whales are extra widespread within the open ocean, in keeping with Milstein.

He mentioned the blue whale encountered close to Dana Point was solely the second ever reported ensnared off the West Coast, and the primary rescuers have tried to free.

Two buoys hooked up to the entanglement recognized it as a part of a crab entice from Morro Bay, off central California, Anderson mentioned. The harness was caught within the whale’s mouth and was dragging the heavy principal rigging of the entice beneath the animal, encumbering its capability to swim and feed, she mentioned.

The whale-watching boat crew, joined by NOAA officers, native harbor patrol and sheriff’s deputies, spent hours making an attempt to slice away the entanglement utilizing cutters on lengthy poles when the whale surfaced to breathe.

The effort grew harder because the animal appeared to turn out to be agitated and commenced submerging for longer durations of time, Milstein mentioned. (Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Sandra Maler)

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