Moss Landing whale entanglement team gets bigger boat

A local whale entanglement team returned to the Central Coast after a two and a half week excursion in Washington with a bigger boat they believe will help save more whales.

“Its really going to increase our response time. number one we are going to put our office on the boat. so even if we are not on the water we’ll be on the boat and we have the equipment so if we get a call it’s already there and we can dash out,” director of the whale entanglement team Peggy Stap said.

Stap said precious time saved when a whale is trapped.

“We believe we could have saved three more whales last year had we had this boat already,” Stap said.

The team went from a 19 foot boat to aforty foot boat which can hold more equipment and more volunteers. But, the bigger the boat the bigger the expense. Stap said the larger one costs more than $200,000 and they’re able to use it thanks to anonymous donors.

“Its just going to change everything. Its been my dream since I’ve started marine life studies in 2006,” Stap said.

Stap said one of the main luxuries of this boat, is that it can be operated inside or outside. That’s important when the team comes across big swells.

Stap said they’re happy to have this new boat but a lot of the equipment like this radio here needs to be updated. There are also thousands of dollars worth of mechanical issues that still need repair. The team has raised about $12,000 but will need more.

“We had ten reports of entangled whales just for this area, statewide we had a lot more,” Stap said.

The team hopes whale entanglements will decrease, but at least now they can get there a lot faster. Team members hope to get the boat in service this week. They’re holding a contest on their Facebook page for naming the boat.