Humpback Whale Entanglement 9/26/25

I spotted this whale near the Pacifica Pier with an orange buoy and line tangled around it. I took some photos and notified The Marine Mammal Center. Once the entanglement hotline was informed, NOAA ended up launching a plane to try and find the whale. The Marine Mammal Center also sent out a boat to help in finding and also hopefully remove the entanglement if the whale was located.

Unfortunately they were unable to locate a whale with the buoy attached. There could be a few reasons for this: 1) The whale managed to slip out of the entanglement (best case!) 2) The entanglement moved in such a way it's not easily visible. 3) The plane and boat were unable to locate the correct whale.

To try and narrow down those possibilities, the Marine Mammal Center is now using my photos along with photos their crew took on the boat to see if they can determine whether any of the whales they found were the same individual that had been entangled.

I am extraordinarily impressed and pleased with the response to this entanglement. NOAA got a plane up very fast and The Marine Mammal Center got a boat out there very fast. And both crews spent a long time searching. It warms my heart.