Whale rescued in Manhattan Beach
It began with a search for an injured sea lion and ended in a whale rescue. Peter Wallerstein, director of Marine Animal Rescue, was searching for a sea lion with a wound from a gill net Thursday when Baywatch Redondo called about a whale with a rope line trailing from its fluke. When he and his crew arrived on the scene, Wallerstein said the young, 20-foot gray whale’s tail was tightly entangled in a rope line, with about ten feet of line trailing on both sides of it. Wallerstein also said that the whale was close to shore. “We wasted no time and began our approach to attempt to free the whale,” he said. The line was wrapped so tightly around the fluke that it took several failed attempts before rescuers were able to release it. Wallerstein snagged the trailing line and pulled his Zodiac closer to the whale. As Wallerstein held the line, his partner was able to cut the whale loose. “We’re lucky we have the ability and opportunity to do it,” Wallerstein said, “because it’s a really dangerous task. One slip of a whale’s tail and it could cause injury.” Wallerstein has not yet found the sea lion he was looking for this morning. He said that although sea lion rescues are more common…
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