Would-be rescuers follow tangled-up whale from Balboa Pier to San Diego

After a challenging effort Friday afternoon to untangle a humpback whale that became wrapped in a fishing gear near the Balboa Pier, authorities hoped to continue trying to free the whale Saturday in San Diego.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department Harbor Patrol received a call about noon Friday that a whale had become caught in at least 250 feet of Dungeness crab nets and buoys. Crews on Harbor Patrol boats and whale-watching vessels took turns monitoring the massive mammal while they waited for a team sent by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to arrive on an inflatable boat to untangle the whale. The whale entanglement team is often dispatched to help whales in distress, authorities said.

By Friday evening, authorities were still trying to untangle the whale, but the humpback — which had traveled south to Laguna Beach — was not making it easy. As crews worked to free the whale, it would dive deep into the water and out of sight.

“It was very challenging,” said Dave Anderson of Capt. Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Safari, who was part of the disentanglement effort. “We hope to re-sight the whale today in San Diego and get a team on it to complete the effort.”

An average of eight whales get caught in fishing lines each year in California, according to NOAA data from 2000 to 2012. However, Harbor Patrol St. Steve Marble said he’s seen more whales caught in fishing gear lately than is typical.

Marble attributed the increase to unusually warm ocean temperatures that have brought more whales to the Southern California coast.