Whale freed
from netting

LAHAINA, Maui » David Matilla and Ed Lyman have rescued about 50 whales in the past 20 years.

It never gets old.

Yesterday, the pair helped free a juvenile humpback whale from a tangle of plastic netting. Left on its own, the distressed whale could have died.

"It always is quite a relief and pretty exhilarating," said Matilla, a rescue coordinator with the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.

Matilla and Lyman followed the whale for about 15 miles and took about five hours to cut most of the netting away on the Lahaina side of the island.

The distressed whale was spotted about two miles off the Lahaina Shores Beach Resort by Ocean Explorer Capt. Chris Nesbitt, who was taking visitors on a morning whale-watching tour organized by the Pacific Whale Foundation.

The whale slapped its pectoral fin on the surface of the water and swam over to the vessel. That was when Nesbitt saw a couple of ropes and netting wrapped around its 30- to 35-foot trunk.

"We could see blood on the side of its tail. It was rubbed raw," he said.

He called the Coast Guard and Matilla, who is in charge of whale entanglement rescues.

Nesbitt stayed with the animal until whale researchers Flip Nicklin and Mark Ferrari arrived.

Matilla said two Coast Guard vessels out of Maalaea Harbor responded to the rescue, and one of them carried the sanctuary's inflatable boat to the rescue site in Lahaina waters.

As they cut the plastic ropes and netting, the whale swam at about 4.5 mph and only submerged once. At one point, Matilla said, the whale rose directly under the 17-foot-long inflatable boat.

Matilla said he and Lyman are authorized to conduct rescues under a federal marine mammal permit, and this was another tricky operation.

"It's just a big tangle of junk," he said. One of the plastic ropes was still attached to its mouth, but the whale seemed to be doing OK. We feel pretty good about its chances," Matilla said.