ROCKPORT, MASS. (WHDH) - A response team helped a distressed minke whale entangled in rope as a great white shark swam beneath them off the coast of Rockport on Thursday.
The Marine Animal Entanglement Response (MAER) team from the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown received a call from a commercial fisherman about an 18-foot-long whale that had rope tangled around its tail and in its mouth.
MAER members on a small inflatable boat used an underwater camera on a long pole to assess the entanglement and found that the rope had begun cutting deeply into the large mammal.
As the whale began to thrash in the water, the team saw a white shark pass below them.
They then moved onto a larger response vessel, where they used long poles outfitted with hook-shaped knives to cut the rope off the whale’s tail.
The whale began to swim freely as the team held onto the rope caught in its mouth.
It eventually let go and swam off at a high speed.
MAER thanked the commercial fisherman for reporting the entanglement and staying with the whale as team members arrived, along with the Rockport harbormaster and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Entanglements of any sea animals can be reported to MAER at 1-800-900-3622 or the United States Coast Guard on VHF 16.
(Copyright (c) 2026 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)