Rescuers Free Entangled Minke Whale in Cape Cod Bay

An approximately 18-foot minke whale entangled in fishing gear off Wellfleet, Massachusetts was freed on September 19, 2026 after a roughly two-hour rescue in Cape Cod Bay. A Hyannis whale-watch boat first spotted the whale towing a buoy line; the Center for Coastal Studies' Marine Animal Entanglement Response team responded aboard its vessel Ibis, approaching the moving animal nearly 50 times before using a hook-shaped knife to cut the line wrapped around the whale's head and through its mouth, with assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard. The Center for Coastal Studies' entanglement response program has freed more than 200 large whales and other marine animals since 1984; officials emphasized that only trained responders, not bystanders, should attempt to intervene in whale entanglements.