UPDATE: Whale Still Entangled Two Miles East of Manasquan Inlet

Contractors for NOAA will try to cut the fishing line entangling a humpback whale about two miles east of the Manasquan Inlet, said a NOAA official late Friday morning.

A crew from the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Mass., is on scene and will be trying to cut line around a whale that is about 25 to 30 feet long, said David Morin, a manager with the Large Whale Disentanglement Network of the  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Judging from the size, the whale is a juvenile, Morin said, adding that adult humpbacks can be more than 50 feet long.

The Provincetown personnel, who have "extensive experience" disentangling whales, will be going out in an inflatable boat, attempting to get as close as possible to the writhing marine mammal and then cut the netting, starting at the head and moving down to the tail, Morin added. 

Morin said the whale cannot swim away because "it's (tangled) in gear that is heavy enough and/or wrapping certain parts of the body. However, it can go up to the surface and breathe. We've had whales that have been entangled for weeks. They have an extensive blubber layer they can live off for quite a long time."

When asked if crews handling disentangling ever use tranquilizer guns, Morin said, "We do in extreme cases, where our normal techniques do not work, we have a way to sedate the animal. But the drugs are extremely expensive and we just don't have a lot of funding. There have been a lot of budget cuts. It's not something we pull out on every stop, only when nothing else works." 

The crew will try to figure out how the whale is entangled and attempt to cut the line head to tail since it is an anchored animal.

"You want to leave the anchoring line as the last one you cut," Morin said.

A safety zone of 300 yards has been established around the whale in all directions, according to the Coast Guard.

The whale was reported tangled at about 11 a.m. Thursday and is "moving about" as the Coast Guard tries to address the situation, said Nicholas Ameen, a Coast Guard spokesman. 

The net is attached to a "high flyer" which is a thin pole, said Ameen. When asked what the gender of the whale is, he said he did not know.

There have been no problems enforcing the safety zone and there have been no reports of other whales in the area, Ameen said.

Ameen said that contractors hired by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are the personnel on scene trying to directly assist the whale and that the Coast Guard is there only to continue to enforce the safety zone perimeter.

Caption for attached photo: The Coast Guard maintains a safety zone around an entangled whale approximately two miles east of Manasquan Inlet on Thursday. The Coast Guard was working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who was working to free the entangled whale. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Seaman Miranda Moore

Click here to view video of the scene. (Thank you to Coast Guard for allowing Patch to use its stills and video.)

This story is developing and will be regularly updated as more information becomes available.