The biggest and fastest whale typically in Cape Cod waters is not one you hear talked about often. It's not the humpback, and not the right whale, our high-profile species. It's the fin whale.
Fin whales can be 65-70 feet long and weigh 70 tons. Scott Landry, of the Center for Coastal Studies, says they're huge animals, built for speed: long and streamlined, with submarine-like bodies and a tall dorsal fin. They've been measured swimming faster than 25 knots.
Fin whales are one of the few vertebrates that are asymmetrically colored, with the right and left sides of the body colored differently. The variations of color on the right side are one of the features that scientists use to identify individual whales of the species.
Fin whale entanglements pose a particular challenge. The whales are so powerful that they may continue to swim while entangled. "It's like trying to disentangle a truck that's moving at 25 miles an hour," said Landry, who is Director of the Marine Animal Entanglement Response Team. "They just move so incredibly fast, and they're so incredibly powerful."
Rescuers attach large buoys to the entanglement to help slow the animal down. "We're never going to bring something as powerful as a fin whale to a stop," Landry said.
Then, while the whale is still moving, rescuers reach out with very sharp knives on very long poles and try to cut away the entanglement.
Landry said the tricky move requires "a lot of patience."
You can hear the full conversation between Steve Junker and Scott Landry in the audio posted above.