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But the whale grew agitated, officials said, and eventually dove deep below the surface and out of sight. Rescuers stopped looking at nightfall, removing a tracking device they’d placed on the whale, reported CNN, and vowing to resume their search the following day.

We were inches away from it, and I can tell you it was gut-wrenching that we couldn’t save it.

But by the end of the day Tuesday, rescuers were unable to relocate the whale and remove the entanglement, according to an update on the safari Facebook page.

“The whale was last seen heading south, and NOAA has alerted San Diego, but the whale could be anywhere,” a post on the page said.

“Every move that whale makes is going to saw into that whale’s flukes. It’s going to be excruciating pain for that whale,” Anderson told CBS News.

The captain estimated the whale could only survive about 30 days, CBS reported, because the lines prevent the whale from eating or swimming freely. He expressed frustration that the rescuers were so close to cutting it free but failed.

“We were inches away from it, and I can tell you it was gut-wrenching that we couldn’t save it,” Anderson told the network.

Entanglements in blue whales are uncommon because it is unusual for them to venture near the coast, Michael Milstein, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told Reuters. The object of this rescue mission was only the second reported blue whale entanglement spotted off the west coast, he said, and the first time officials tried to free one.