Strangers on the Water Free a Tangled Humpback

A young humpback whale tangled in crab-pot lines is swimming free off Southeast Alaska, thanks to a flotilla of strangers who spotted it and refused to lose track of it.

The juvenile humpback was snared near the mouth of Endicott Arm, a glacial fjord about 50 miles south of Juneau, on the evening of May 10 when passing mariners saw it and called the marine mammal stranding hotline. What happened next was a small act of coordination on a big stretch of water: vessel crews in the area began trading the whale's position back and forth and relaying updates to NOAA responders, keeping eyes on the animal until help could reach it.

"We formed a network of eyes on the water — vessel crews coordinating real-time updates between one another and relaying them to us," said Dr. Suzie Teerlink, a NOAA marine mammal specialist and trained large-whale entanglement responder. "That communication was critical." It told the team how the whale was tangled, let them plan a safe approach, and gave them confidence they could find it again in a fjord busy with cruise ships, charter boats, and fishing vessels.

When the response team reached the whale, they freed it the way these rescues are done — with knives mounted on long poles, reaching in from a safe distance to cut the lines away. The young humpback swam off clear of the gear.

If you ever spot a whale, seal, or sea lion in trouble in Alaska waters, the statewide stranding hotline runs 24 hours at 1-877-925-7773 — and the best thing to do is keep your distance, take a photo, and call it in. On water this vast, it's often a stranger's phone call that saves the animal.