A 35-foot-long, yearling humpback whale has been freed of a polypropylene rope that had been wrapped around its mouth and body since at least Tuesday, officials said today.

The mammal was freed late Sunday afternoon after a U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat crossed the Kaiwi channel from Oahu to waters west of Molokai, according to the Coast Guard and NOAA’s Hawaiian Islands Humpback National Marine Sanctuary.
Members from NOAA’s Hawaiian Islands Humpback National Marine Sanctuary,
NOAA’s Pacific Islands Regional Office and the State Department of Land and Natural Resources were allowed close enough to cut the lines using specialized equipment.
The whale had been swimming with an adult female whale and an adult male, hampering earlier efforts to cut the heavy-gauge propylene line.
The yearling originally was spotted by a Pacific Whale Foundation vessel dragging 400 to 500 feet of rope.
An average of six to eight confirmed whale entanglements are reported in Hawaii each whale-watching season.