‘Needle in the haystack’ search continues for entangled humpback whale

Tour boats fanned out early Sunday searching for a humpback whale last seen off the coast of Rancho Palos Verdes with netting snarled around its head and in its mouth.

After getting a call from boaters around 1 p.m. Saturday, officials spotted the whale thrashing in the water, said Justin Viezbicke, California Stranding Network coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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But rescuers could never get close enough to the animal to attach a locating device.

“We’re kind of back to the needle in the haystack at this point,” Viezbicke said.

It’s been a bad year for the whales that swim off Southern California’s shores.

Tour boat captain Dan Salas – whose crew spotted the 35-footer Saturday – said his company takes at least two groups of whale watchers out every day. All of last year, he said, they never spotted any entangled whales between Catalina Island and Rancho Palos Verdes.

In the last two months, he said, they’ve spotted three – a blue whale in September, a humpback dragging a line from its fin three weeks ago and the humpback from Saturday.

Salas blames El Niño.

The warm water conditions this year, he said, remind him of those leading up to the wet and destructive El Niño in the early ‘80s.

Warm water means a scarcity of anchovies and other food sources for whales, Salas said, forcing them to be more creative.

“They’re getting more daring and aggressive to find food,” he said. “They’re doing things they normally wouldn’t do and that’s how they’re getting caught up in things.”

Four boats headed out to search for the whale Sunday morning, Salas said, and by 9:30 a.m. the mist had lifted and he and a crew of volunteers had a clear view of the water.

For more news from the Los Angeles County, follow @marisagerber.

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