The net wrapped around and hanging off the gray whale's tail was so long it had starfish entangled within its web - meaning, at some point, the netting had been#xa0;dragging on the ocean floor.
Rescuers were able to get close enough to cut off most of the 100-foot-long gill net just before the sun set Saturday, April 15, but another sighting in Newport Beach the following day showed some line still wrapped on the fluke, intertwined with kelp, with the whale traveling slower than normal and still in need of help.