Stirring footage shows whale trying to free itself from fishing gear

On December 12 we featured images showing an entangled humpback whale revealing the extent of its troubles with a spectacular series of breaches off Newport Beach, Ca.

On Wednesday the photographer, Mark Girardeau, published the accompanying footage. It shows the whale trying desperately to free itself from rope that wound through its mouth and tightly around its right pectoral fin, threatening to amputate the appendage.

Girardeau began his description: “The impact of humans on this planet is all too apparent, most of it goes unnoticed or we simply turn our backs to it. We eat from the ocean while destroying the animals in it, this is just one of so many instances just here in Southern California.”

Rescue teams were hoping for a chance to free the whale, but a safe opportunity did not present itself and the whale is now presumably still entangled while migrating to Mexico for the winter.

However, as Girardeau pointed out, there are no crab or lobster traps attached to the rope, so the whale is not dragging dead weight and there’s a chance the rope can be worked free.

The whale is known to science, cataloged by Happy Whale as HW-MN0503323. It has been documented five times since 2023 between Morro Bay and San Diego.