Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
TwitThisCutting Through the Cat's Cradle
After picking up Frances Gulland, the Marine Center's veterinarian, and two volunteers across the bay in Sausalito, Menigoz motored out through the Golden Gate. He had the center's small inflatable craft with an outboard in tow.By about 1:30 p.m., he was close to the GPS coordinates for the whale's location and told everyone to scan the horizon.
One volunteer, Jason Russey, pointed to a plume of water rising like cold steam from the sea -- the spout of a humpback whale. "There it is," he yelled.
As they approached, they saw the domed top of a massive gray head -- about the size of a large dining-room table -- just above the water. The humpback almost seemed to be anchored in place, not swimming, not even drifting with the current. And to Menigoz's trained eye, the animal was also listing to one side. The Superfish cautiously inched forward to within 100 feet.
Four buoys the size of gallon bleach bottles floated in the water around the whale. Each buoy was connected by a rope to a 100-pound metal and mesh crab trap on the ocean floor. Four traps shouldn't weigh down a whale that size, Moskito thought. Why wasn't it moving?
He and Young climbed into the inflatable and went to check. The rubberized craft bucked in the rolling sea. As they edged closer, a sea lion swimming nearby leaped out of the water over the floundering whale as if to mark the spot.
Moskito took it as a good sign -- sea lions wouldn't swim where sharks were feeding.
Suited up, he and Young tested their snorkels, readied themselves, and then rolled backward into the sea.
Like so much scattered popcorn, small chunks of white blubber, gouged from the whale's body by the ropes, floated all around them, clouding the water. Young and Moskito made their first inspection, and then returned to the outboard to don scuba gear. They'd need air to work around -- and maybe under -- the humpback.
As Young swam back to the whale, one of the crab-trap ropes caught the sheath on his leg and snatched away the larger of his two dive knives. A glint of steel disappeared into the gloom.
Swimming downward, the two men saw the animal was a female, some 50 feet in length. Her tail was wrapped with about 20 ropes connected to a dozen or so 100-pound crab traps. That's what was anchoring her in place. The weights dragged her tail down at a 90-degree angle to her body. From the tail, the ropes wound upward around her flipper. She was hogtied -- and using every ounce of strength just to keep her blowhole above water.
Moskito's heart sank as he looked at the tangled mess. There's no way we're going to save this whale, he thought, but realizing, too, that they had to try.
Back together on the surface, the two men mapped out a game plan. They'd start with the two ropes that were more loosely wound around the pectoral fin.
Taking their dive knives back underwater, they came body to body with the whale. Young began sawing at the half-inch blue rope. Moskito used a double-bladed knife that worked like scissors.
Instead of thrashing at them with her fin, the whale stopped moving completely, resting in the swells. Even after they cut her flipper free, she remained still and calm.
Both men surfaced and swam back to the inflatable to talk with the center's crew. "I think she knows we're trying to help her," Moskito said. The team turned the outboard around and motored to the Superfish for more supplies.
Moskito dove down to tackle the spaghetti tangle around the whale's tail. And Young traced the ropes, slippery with the humpback's blubber, to her mouth. The feel of the whale's skin, as soft as a wet chamois, surprised him. Patches of barnacles and other crustaceans had attached themselves to her body; he could see scars from earlier injuries.
The blue lines ran over her head and through her mouth from side to side like a gag. She had struggled so fiercely against the ropes that they'd sliced into her flesh.
Young severed the ropes, and then tugged with all his strength to remove the pieces. It was like pulling on giant dental floss. This had to be frightening her, hurting her, he thought. But amazingly, she remained calm. Young worked methodically, acutely aware of the danger of getting an arm, leg or a piece of his gear tangled in the cat's cradle of lines that surrounded her. If the humpback should dive, she would take him down with her.
His swim fins resting lightly against her flipper for leverage, Young floated eye-to-eye with the wounded animal. In utter stillness, with that eye as large as a human fist, the whale watched him as he tackled the lines.
At the tail, Moskito sliced through the nylon bonds as quickly as he could. Each time he cut one, the humpback eased her tail into position again.
Advertisement 
