Rescue team helps untangle
rope from distressed humpback

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By Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.com

WAILUKU >> What began as an attempt to free a humpback whale entangled in rope turned into a wild four-hour ride across about eight miles of ocean for rescuers David Matilla and Ed Lyman.

Although the two men were left with a few scratches and rope burns, they were able to get the line off the 35-foot-long yearling, which at one point was within 40 feet of them.

"This one was one of the more frisky humpbacks," Matilla said.

Matilla said the incident was the first successful disentanglement of a humpback whale in Hawaiian waters since he was hired by the federal government a season ago to assist in rescues.

He expects the rescue team will be busier in the future as more people become aware of their efforts in the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.

The rescue of the entangled humpback began at 9:20 a.m. Sunday when Matilla received a call about the distressed whale about 2 1/2 miles off Olowalu in southwestern Maui.

Boat Capt. Willy Bennett saw the distressed whale and called for assistance.

Matilla said Bennett stayed a safe distance from the whale but continued to track its location and received help from University of Hawaii graduate students Mark Deakos and Siri Hakala, who were on another boat.

Deakos and Hakala, who work under researchers at the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory, were able to locate the whale after Bennett lost sight of it, Matilla said.

Matilla said as he and Lyman rode on an inflatable boat toward the whale, sanctuary official Claire Cappelle and state aquatic biologist Skippy Hau followed in a backup vessel with equipment to assist in the rescue.

"I think we were able to do this rescue because it was a group effort," Matilla said.

Matilla said the whale was pulling about 80 feet of three-quarter-inch polypropylene line in the water, and the line had cut an inch into the front of it and made little ridges in its blubber.

"The rope was beginning to grow into the humpback whale," Matilla said.

He said the yearling was swimming with two other whales.

Matilla said he and Lyman have been involved in about 50 to 60 whale rescues along the East Coast, and the objective is to first keep the whale from diving and to slow it down by attaching buoys.

He said the whale had more energy than many other whales and was sometimes traveling at about 8 mph, dragging four buoys and the rubber inflatable.

"Usually with a humpback, if you apply enough drag, it will stop swimming in an hour. This one continued swimming for hours," Matilla said.

Matilla said he and Lyman eventually were able to attach an underwater parachute to the line, which slowed the whale substantially.

The resistance apparently was enough to break the rope, and the whale was able to free itself from the entanglement as it swam in the channel between Kahoolawe and Lanai, he said.

Matilla said the rope could have been used for fishing or mooring a boat.

"It's impossible to know where it came from," Matilla said.