Vallarta Adventures Blog

NUEVO VALLARTA, MEXICO
JAN. 24, 2009 – Mexican Navy officials, along with local marine mammal experts, teamed up to free a Humpback whale from a life-threatening entanglement Friday afternoon. Members of the Mexican Navy (SEMAR), Vallarta Adventures and Instituto Technológico del Mar (ITMAR) collaborated and successfully disentangled a fishing line from the whale. The rescue mission took place in the North part of the Bay of Banderas, near Destiladeras beach.

Click on the image to start playing the video (10 min.) of the rescue operation.

The whale was entangled in 1/8 inch diameter “longline” and had hooks in the tail, pectoral fins and baleen (whalebone in upper jaws). A longline, also known as ´simbra´, is a high resistance commercial deep sea fishing line that uses hundreds or even thousands of baited hooks hanging from a single line, sometimes over a mile in length.

The whale was first spotted Jan. 22 around 2pm CT in front of Four Seasons Resort (near Punta de Mita) by Mexican Navy – Military Zone 8, lead by LT Luis Vidal. After a quick evaluation by PROFEPA (Mexican Environment Enforcement Agency), it was decided to set-up a rescue network and request assistance from Vallarta Adventures and ITMAR, local marine mammal experts.

Ricardo Rebolledo, Marine Mammal Specialist of Vallarta Adventures stated:  “Thursday we were alerted by PROFEPA who told us of an entangled whale that was entangled by a large quantity of deep sea fishing line. The Authorities were coordinating the rescue operation of the whale and asked us to join the rescue effort. We arrived on location at 4:30pm CT.”

A second evaluation took place in order to thoroughly determine all circumstances. The condition of the animal was assessed as life-threatening. The situation appeared to be even more delicate than expected, since the whale happened to be a nursing mother.  Fortunately her baby was swimming freely, unwrapped, around her. However, the lives of both animals were still in risk because of the calf being in the critical stage of learning how to breathe.

The process of cutting a large, free-swimming whale, is also extremely dangerous for the people involved. Many amateur rescuers have either died or been critically injured in attempts to free animals. Despite good weather conditions, the timing (only one hour left till dusk) and the rough waters combined with high tide made the operation too risky for both animals and humans. At 6:20pm CT the operation was postponed and a buoy was attached to the whale, to accurately keep track of the position for returning rescuers the following day.

Thanks to the tracking buoy, no precious time was wasted and the whale was located quickly Friday morning by the Mexican Navy. She was swimming in front of Destiladeras beach. Vallarta Adventures and ITMAR, each supplying a boat, joined the Mexican Navy at 9:00am CT. While the Mexican Navy coordinated the movements of the whales with two boats, three diving instructors and a marine mammal expert of Vallarta Adventures tried to get rid of most of the material that was handicapping the whale. The whole operation had to be done with extreme care to avoid any stress on her calf.

Friday at 1:30pm CT the mother was successfully disentangled and swam away free with her baby. This is the 1st successful disentanglement in Bay of Banderas this whale season. For Vallarta Adventures it is the 3rd time to be successfully involved in a disentanglement operation since the start of their Marine Mammal Rescue Program 5 years ago.

While the sight of a helpless animal wounded or dying can be touchingly painful and provoke feelings of frustration or “the need to help”, please be aware that in Mexico it is illegal for anyone without a governmental authorization to handle a marine mammal.