WATCH: Rescue team frees humpback whale tangled in fishing gear near Monterey Bay

MONTEREY, Calif. (KGO) -- A rescue effort spanned several days to save an entangled humpback whale near south of San Francisco.

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A fisherman first called whale rescuers on Dec. 9 saying the humpback was wrapped in fishing line.

On Dec. 11 a conservation group searched the Monterey Bay from sunrise to sunset and they found more than 40 whales, but not the whale tangled in fishing gear.

Rescuers located the entangled whale on Friday and video shows the rescue crew in a small inflatable boat with five large pink buoys.

They used buoys to slow whale down and were able to cut the line running across the whale's back.

The gear came off, and the whale swam away.

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