MOSS LANDING, Calif. (AP) — A rescue team helped free a young humpback whale that was tangled in fishing gear south of San Francisco days after a fisherman first spotted it, a conservation group said Tuesday.

The team in a small inflatable boat in Monterey Bay attached five large, hot-pink buoys to the fishing line to slow down the whale and keep it near the surface Friday, said Peggy Stap, founder and executive director of Marine Life Studies, a Northern California conservation group.

They could then cut the fishing line running across the whale's back, all the gear fell away and the animal s...