Freed Gray Whale Spotted Heading North

A gray whale partially freed from a tangle of nylon line off Orange County's coast was spotted headed north off Monterey County today.

Two floats attached to the roughly 40-foot whale by members of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center a week ago today helped spotters identify the big filter-feeder about 8 a.m. today off Gorda, Calif.

Monica DeAngelis, a marine biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said it was a "good sign'' that the whale, nicknamed June, was going north. When first spotted in trouble, it was headed south—the wrong direction for this time of year.

Because of the line wrapped around a pectoral fin and caught in his mouth—perhaps from lobster traps used in Mexico—marine biologists feared the whale would be unable to dive and feed itself. Unlike toothed whales, gray whales filter their food from the water with sieve-like structures in their mouths called baleen.

June was swimming slower and surfacing to breathe more often than some other migrating gray whales, according to DeAngelis.

She said it was unclear if any line was left in the whale's mouth, adding that a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crew was asked to kept tabs on June.

But, with a Pacific storm approaching, she said it would be too dangerous to try to cut any more line away.

"We've contacted people doing surveys in the area to get a more current location," DeAngelis said.

Gray whales give birth in the warm waters of Baja Mexico during the winter and migrate to waters off Alaska in the summers.

DeAngelis said the whale should be in Monterey Bay in another day or so, where researchers with the world-famous aquarium there may try to cut away the rest of the line.

Rescue workers from the Pacific Marine Mammal Center managed to cut loose about 120-feet of line last Tuesday, before losing contact with the whale at sundown.