Entangled Humpback Whale Freed Off Provincetown Coast
PROVINCETOWN (CBS) -- A Marine Animal Entanglement Response team freed an entangled humpback whale off the Provincetown coast on Saturday.
The incident happened near Stellwagen Bank, which is about five miles north of Provincetown.
A Center for Coastal Studies research team studying humpback whales found one whale was wrapped up from the mouth to the tail, according to Catherine Macort of CSS.
The whale wasn't able to move much near the surface and could not defend itself against the shark and was injured by it. The shark left a large bite mark along the whale's left flank.
The team worked to free the whale while aboard a 35-foot boat while the nearly 15-foot-long shark remained in the area.
The rope was cut from the whale's mouth, and despite the tail being wrapped multiple times it was still able to swim away.
Once the shark swam away, the team then pulled alongside the whale to finish the disentanglement.
Once freed, the whale swam quickly out of the area.
