Juvenile Minke Whale rescued from Monterey Harbor
A multi-agency effort to rescue a juvenile Minke Whale trapped in Monterey Bay. Their actions paid off, with the whale being freed after three hours. First responders don’t necessarily train for things like this, but it was a life or death situation.
Emergency responders believe the whale came into the harbor to feed on bait fish, then got stuck under the dock near the Coast Guard Pier.
Derek Browy of Pacific Grove had just gotten back from a fishing trip when he heard about it. He went to the area and watched the whale struggle for 45 minutes before leaving.
“I actually did say, “OK, this whale is dead,”” Browy said. “There’s nothing that nobody can do for it because there was so much blood in the water.”
Scott Kathey coordinated the emergency response and knew something had to be done right away.
“The whale kept banging itself upon these rocks,” Kathey said. “And so, there was a lot of blood in the water. It had a lot of gashes on it, a lot of cuts. And had rubbed off surface layers of skin. So, it was in a bad predicament.”
Because the whale was pointed toward the jetty, he suspects the whale was trying to return to the open water that way. However, it wouldn’t work. With the help of fire, police, Harbor Patrol, the National Marine Sanctuary, the Whale Entanglement Tea and the Coast Guard, they tied one of a fire hose to a rescue vessel and got the other end around the whale, then dragged it out backwards. Driven by instinct, the whale turned the tables.
“The whale got a spurt of energy and started towing the Coast Guard boat,” Kathey said. “The Coast Guard boat was in full reverse.”
Eventually it was freed of the fire house. Safe and free, much to the delight on Derek.
“I was really surprised when I had heard they had gotten it out and into the bay safely,” Derek explains, “Which was good, I was stoked.”
While this was a Minke Whale caught in the harbor, Kathey says it is common for Gray Whales to come into the harbor, feed, then leave. No one had ever recalled an incident like this ever happening before.
