A humpback whale entangled in hundreds of feet of heavy-gauge cable in waters off Maui has a new lease on life thanks to the efforts of an interagency team of rescuers.

The two-day effort to remove the deeply embedded cable from within the whale’s mouth involved first-response experts from the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, Coast Guard, Maui Ocean Safety, Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission and The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s West Maui response team.

According to a joint statement released Monday, the whale was first spotted Saturday off the Pali Lookout, near Maui’s McGregor Point. With the assistance of the Coast Guard, responders from the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary located the whale and made an initial effort to cut away the cable, believing it to be ordinary fishing line, with standard instruments including a bladed pole and a tow grapple.

The effort was suspended due to darkness.

The following day, tour boat operators located the whale heading south in the same area off Kamaole Beach with the cable trailing along the ocean floor some 60 feet below.

Ed Lyman, the sanctuary’s large whale entanglement response coordinator, said he and his fellow rescuers managed to successfully deploy the tow grapple but could not free the whale.

“We finally got a look at it and found out that it was cable — thick, 5/8-inch cable — and not line,” he said in an interview.

With the Coast Guard keeping onlookers at bay, Lyman and his crew got as close as they could to the whale and used cable cutters to remove cable from both sides of the whale’s mouth, leaving only a relatively small portion of cable that could not be pulled from deep within the mouth. The operation took most of the day to complete.

“We trimmed as close as we could and we hope that the whale will be able to expel the rest on its own,” Lyman said.

Lyman said the whale’s behavior once it was freed indicated that it was in good condition despite being slightly emaciated.

“Before we cut it loose, it seemed to want to lay the cable on the ocean floor, which makes sense because the cable was so heavy,” he said. “Once we cut the cable away, the whale started swimming freely.”

A veteran of about 90 such rescue efforts, Lyman said this was the first time that he had encountered a whale entangled in cable. He said the next step will be to identify specifically what kind of cable it was and where it came from.

NOAA advised mariners to look out for marine mammals in distress but not to approach them or attempt to assist them. Anyone who sees a whale or other marine mammal in distress is asked to call NOAA’s 24-hour hotline at 888-256-9840.