RYE — A group of 85 whale watchers witnessed humpback whale "Owl" thrash for 50 minutes while caught in a fishing net Thursday afternoon off the Isles of Shoals, said Peter Reynolds who led the tour.

"She's my favorite whale," Reynolds said. "I thought she was going to die, to be honest."

Jen Kennedy, executive director of the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation, said the fishing net was deployed off the "purse-seiner" vessel "Western Wave" and the net "completely encompassed the 32-year-old humpback.

"The fishermen were aware of the whale in the vicinity and still deployed their net, which was towed by a smaller boat to encircle a school of herring that was being preyed upon by the 45-foot humpback whale," Kennedy said. "Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation staff was aboard the whale watch boat. Humpback whales are a protected species that was listed as endangered just two years ago. Clearly, they still face threats from humans."

Kennedy said the crew on the whale watch boat has a combined 65-plus years of whale-watching experience, including three Coast Guard licensed captains on board, and they have "never seen such a blatant whale harassment case."

She said the incident was reported and is under investigation by NOAA Law Enforcement.

Reynolds said the fishing crew continued to try to haul the net while Owl was caught and "in obvious distress" and his passengers were "horrified." He said Owl is identified by a divet on her back from when she was struck by a boat when she was young.

"She was flailing around, splashing and she was trying to get out," he said.

Portsmouth attorney Phil Desfosses said he was tuna fishing in the area when he heard marine radio traffic during the 50 minutes Owl was entangled and "people were going crazy." He criticized the overfishing of herring and said the fishermen should have known there were whales there because of on-board technology.

"I think it's extremely reckless of them to place a whale in danger," he said.

Reynolds said there were 12 humpback whales in the area at the time and the net was intentionally set in spite of that.

"It was pretty brazen for sure," he said.

A Coast Guard spokesman said a Coast Guard boat patrolling at the time, about 2:15 p.m. Thursday, responded to the incident, took 40 minutes to get there and by the time it did, the fishing net had been lowered and Owl was freed.

Kennedy said the fishing boat eventually dropped part of its net "and the humpback whale eventually fled at a rapid rate of speed."

"Humpback whales are known to become entangled in fixed fishing gear, unattended gear that is left anchored for days on end, and the majority of humpback whales in the Gulf of Maine exhibit scars from such encounters," she said. "This is an extremely rare event to have a fishing vessel actually set its net around a whale while multiple whale watching and fishing boats were in the area. However, the Western Wave and a second purse-seine vessel were seen and reported just two weeks ago for the same activity off of Cape Ann, Mass."



She said herring seiner boats have "inundated the area in recent weeks in response to the number of whale sightings close to shore."

"Whales are attracted to the area to feed on small schooling fish such as herring," she said. "Seiners target herring, which are commercially used as lobster bait, in cat food and as fertilizer."

Kennedy said Owl is one of four humpback whales featured in Blue Ocean’s Adopt-a-Whale program. For information, she said, visit Blue Ocean Society at blueoceansociety.org.