Fulcrum, An Entangled Humpback

By William Rossiter

Fulcrum. (Photos by Patricia Sullivan)

Fulcrum has a fishing line so tightly wrapped around her that you can see how it has made repeated cuts in her dorsal fin area. You've read about the entanglement problem, perhaps tried to realize its scale, but when a suffering whale with a known history and name is seen on a whale watch everything should come into focus.

CSI board members Patty Sullivan, Paul Digangi and Bill Rossiter were on an all-day fund-raising whale watch out of Plymouth, MA in early September, in support of the International Wildlife Coalition. We excitedly approached what even experienced observers thought was a tail-breaching humpback feeding. But as soon as Fulcrum was identified the moment became tragic; she was known to be entangled. We watched as she became exhausted after several minutes of trying to get rid of the line, which must hurt a great deal.

The Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, http://www.coastalstudies.org/, was immediately notified and scrambled their whale disentanglement team. Also deployed was Sea Tow, a vessel contracted to stand by and assist. By agreement, local whale watch vessels also stand by entangled whales, because sadly it has been proven that it is almost impossible to relocate entangled whales once they are lost to view. Nearby vessels approached cautiously, but only to bring the message home to their passengers. All moved farther away as the Center's rescue boat arrived. To their credit even the British passengers on our vessel (on a WDCS tour), who had paid quite a bit for this opportunity to sample US whale watching, not only did not complain about standing by but complimented the response.

Fulcrum was not rescued this day, nor on several other tries, although PCCS is always ready to try again. She trails no gear because the line complies with recent standards to help prevent entanglements, with a now-parted weak link designed to limit the amount of gear an entangled whale is burdened with; there is nothing to grab that is not on her body. She actively evades rescuers who are unable to get close enough because she is boat-shy, having been struck by a boat some time ago. She is so skittish that one very quiet attempt failed when she saw the rescuers' shadow in the water. She seems to have left the area. Will she ever be seen again?