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Video: Whale entangled in fishing gear off Peninsula

By and
Updated  April 10, 2024 9:36am PDT
Pets and Animals
KTVU FOX 2

Whale entangled in net off the coast of Daly City

A gray whale has been spotted off the Northern California coast entangled in lines. KTVU's Jana Katsuyama reports.

DALY CITY, Calif. - A whale became entangled in fishing gear off the Peninsula coast on Tuesday.

Photographer Tony Corso captured drone footage of the marine mammal in the water, snared in a fishing net near Thornton State Beach in Daly City.

According to Giancarlo Rulli of the Marine Mammal Center, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries alerted them on Tuesday morning about a whale trapped in what appeared to be fishing gear.

The NOAA Fisheries said the whale was first spotted tangled in a fishing net off Laguna Beach on March 23. A group that assisted the whale down in Southern California had attempted to remove the net, but the whale was too skittish. The group was able to attach a tagging device, a satellite buoy, to monitor its movements.

The agency said the satellite tracker lost connection until April 3 when the whale was spotted near Piedras Blancas before Tuesday's sighting off the Peninsula.

The Marine Mammal Center said that the goal is to free the whale, although weather conditions and visibility are key factors for when that could happen.