It took rescuers with the Canadian Whale Institute on Campobello Island 5 hours to free six-year-old male right whale, which was badly entangled with polyblend line last Saturday morning. The whale was in the water off the Campobello Island in Bay of Fundy.

The whale was dubbed FDR after former U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt. There was 5/8-inch polyblend line across whale’s body. Two orange, polyester flotation balls were also attached to the body near the blowholes. The whale was not in a good condition.

“Researchers hope that this whale, facing life-threatening physical challenges, has the good fortune of its namesake and survives and goes on to contribute to the recovery of the most endangered large whale species in the Atlantic”, the statement said.

The Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station’s vessel came across the North Atlantic right whale that was 12-metre in length near to the Canada-U.S. border. On spotting the whale they called in a nearby New England Aquarium boat that brought right whale researchers to the spot.

When they saw the whale being severely entangled, the volunteer Campobello Whale Rescue Team was called to the site at about 11 a.m. The volunteers were Brown, fishermen Joe Howlett and Mackie Greene, and retired fisheries manager Jerry Conway came on a seven-metre inflatable rescue boat.

The North Atlantic right whale can be found in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia and Gulf of St. Lawrence to the coast of Florida. There are almost 500 right whales found across North Atlantic region. The most common site for the whale to be found is Bay of Fundy especially in summers.

The same whale was found freed from another marine gear entanglement off of Georgia two years ago. New England Aquarium right whale scientists named it 4057.

A report published in Castanet informed, "Rescuers say the six-year-old male North Atlantic right whale was first spotted entangled in a tremendous amount of gear near the Canada/U.S. border by a vessel from the Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station."

Lobstermen and scallopers Joe Howlett and Mac Green left their work and joined New England Aquarium whale researcher Moira Brown and retired Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans manager Jerry Conway on board a rescue Zodiac and sped off about 30 miles to the scene.

“The juvenile whale had line wrapped multiple times around its head, back and both flippers. The 5/8 inch polyblend line even ran through the whale’s baleen or its giant filtering plates that hang from its upper jaw. In addition, two orange, polyester flotation balls were cinched to its body, just behind the blowholes,” explained the Campobello team.

According to a report in CBC by Kashmala Fida, "The six-year-old male whale was severely entangled. "I've never seen a whale with so many lines on it," said Moira Brown, senior scientist for the Canadian Whale Institute on Campobello Island, who was on the rescue mission Saturday morning."

"?The Campobello/Georgia connection was not lost on the aquarium whale researchers," spokesman Tony LaCasse said in a statement on Monday. "They decided to name #4057 after Campobello's most famous resident ever, who also had nearly died here one summer and shared an affinity for spending winters in the warmer waters of Georgia."

"?Researchers hope that this whale, facing life-threatening physical challenges, has the good fortune of its namesake and survives and goes on to contribute to the recovery of the most endangered large whale species in the Atlantic," the statement said.