Windy conditions and rough seas are delaying efforts to free a young humpback whale from a tangle of heavy rope wrapped around its mouth and body.

Data from a transmitter attached to lines entangling the 35-foot yearling indicated it was swimming today in waters northwest of Länaçi, said Ed Lyman, marine mammal response manager for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.
The whale is traveling with its mother and a male escort, making efforts to cut the heavy-gauge propylene line especially tricky, he said.
Lyman said his team caught up with the animal late yesterday afternoon off Launiupoko after its location was reported by a Pacific Whale Foundation vessel. By then, a good portion of the 400 to 500 feet of rope originally seen around the whale apparently had been pulled off when the first transmitter broke free, he said.
A second transmitter was attached yesterday, but Lyman was unable to remove the remaining rope using a knife attached to a pole.
“We lay the knife on its back and just missed cutting the line. The yearling didn’t respond; it stayed smooth but the mother did a little tail flick to give us a little warning maybe,” he said.
Lyman said he is rigging a longer, lighter-weight pole to use when ocean conditions permit further attempts to free the whale.
The entangled whale was first spotted Tuesday by a different Pacific Whale Foundation vessel.
Lyman guessed the whale became entangled while visiting its winter feeding grounds off Alaska. The animal has abrasions on its body and a partially healed chaffing wound behind its blow hole likely caused by a knot in the rope.
Despite the injuries, “this guy right now looks in pretty good health” and should fare well once the line is removed, Lyman said.
An average of six to eight confirmed whale entanglements are reported in Hawaiçi each season, he said.