PHOTOS: Whale freed from netting in Dana Point Harbor

Dave Anderson tries to get a closer look at a young gray whale floundering in Dana Point Harbor after becoming entangled in gill nets and ropes. Anderson was part of special team that worked for four hours to remove the snarl, after which the whale swam out of the harbor and into the ocean.
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Dave Anderson, left, and Eric Otjen try to pull Dean Gomersall from the Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach back into their boat after he fell overboard while the three were trying to free the ensnared whale.
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Hundreds watch from shore as a team of experts works to remove gill nets and ropes that the whale was caught up in.
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Marine mammal experts watch as the whale they had freed swims away into the open ocean.
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Eric Otjen from Sea World holds the ball of nylon gill netting and ropes that he and other marine mammal rescuers removed from the young gray whale that had been floating listlessly in Dana Point Harbor since Monday.
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Rescuers Dave Anderson, Eric Otjen and Dean Gomersall get sprayed by a young gray whale while trying to free it from a tangle of net and rope.
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As part of the whale rescue team, Dave Anderson gets a hug and a kiss from his wife, Gisele, after he and other experts successfully freed the young gray. Thanks to the efforts of the team from Sea World in San Diego, the Ocean Institute in Dana Point and the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, the whale, which had been ensnared in net and ropes in Dana Point Harbor since Monday -- so immobilized that observers at first thought the animal was old and ailing -- quickly swam away into open waters.
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Spectators stake out a spot on Dana Point’s rock jetty to watch a wandering 35- to 40-foot whale, estimated to weigh about 30 tons. A marine biologist says the lethargic, emaciated whale appeared close to death and could have been up to 60 years old.
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Water sprays from the blowhole of the gray whale, which wandered into Dana Point Harbor and briefly navigated its way out of the harbor before circling back into port and then heading out to sea again.
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Spectators snap photographs of the whale. After leaving and returning, it finally swam out of the harbor toward Doheny Beach, where it was last spotted.
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A Chihuahua named Dulce clings to her owner, Esther J. Williams, as the whale passes by. A marine biologist says whales wander into the harbor about once a year, but usually they are infants who lose their way on their annual migration from the warm waters of Baja California, Mexico, where they spend the winter, to their feeding grounds in Alaska and the Arctic.
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An Orange County Sheriff’s Department Harbor Patrol boat takes a closer look at at the whale as it floats near the jetty at Dana Point Harbor. Whales in the harbor are a danger to boats, officials say, and boats are a danger to whales.
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