NE Aquarium works to untangle endangered whales – Boston News, Weather, Sports

A rescue operation is underway to save an endangered whale that is entangled and in trouble.

Researchers from the New England Aquarium spotted the young whale in Canadian waters wrapped in rope.

“When she first surfaced there was just enough water coming off her back to make me unsure about what I was seeing, but when she dove it became very clear that there was a rope hanging over her back,” said Kate McPherson , a research technician at the Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center, said in a statement. “My heart immediately sank when I alerted the rest of the boat that we had an entangled whale; this is the last thing we want to see when we go out to investigate.”

The scientists tagged it so they can track its movements as they work to free it.

The mother whale, named War, was first sighted in 1988, but her exact age is unknown. The confused whale is her seventh known calf.

“Even with a relatively small known family, ‘War’ and all her descendants, including this yearling, have collectively experienced at least nine entanglements and one shipwreck,” the aquarium said in a statement.

There is an estimated population of fewer than 360 North Atlantic right whales in the world, making it one of the most endangered large whale species in the world.