Need For Improved Global Whale Entanglement Responses Highlighted In Provincetown

PROVINCETOWN – Efforts to improve whale safety and responses to entanglements worldwide were the topic of a discussion in Provincetown last night.

The Global Whale Entanglement Response Team was born out of the Center for Coastal Studies work to save whales from entanglement locally. Local entanglement experts are training rescue crews around the world on practices developed here on Cape Cod.

“The Center for Coastal Studies developed some techniques for releasing whales that do get entangled, and now we know this is kind of a global issue,” said David Mattila, the Director of the Global Whale Entanglement Response Team. “It’s happening anywhere there are whales and ropes and nets in the water.”

The Global Whale Entanglement Response Team is partnering with the International Whaling Commission, an organization of 88 countries around the world focused on whaling management, on the project.

“We have, now, about five people that have a lot of experience disentangling whales and they can go in to a country, at the invitation of a government, and help them to establish a response network,” Mattila said.