A whale researcher on a routine mission catches sight of a baby whale tangled in a fishing net in the Bay of Fundy. Special whale rescuers are called in from Cape Cod to free Pasha, a rare North Atlantic right whale. Although a summer storm threatens to terminate the life-saving operation, perseverance triumphs, and the young whale swims to safety.

This book is the first in a series that explores heroic efforts made by people trying to save endangered animals from extinction. Written by Deborah Tobin, a marine environmentalist, the text details the technology of a rescue, providing convincing particulars about the way human rescuers locate and liberate whales in trouble. Pasha and his mother will seem quite real to children hearing the narrative. Scientific facts about right whales and their endangered status are included at the end of the book, as is a profile of the whale rescue team that monitors the east coast.

The text of Tangled in the Bay tries to present an accurate representation of whale ecology in the contemporary world, but at least two of the illustrations seem to undercut the book’s real-life feel. It’s as if a fictional whale has suddenly splashed onto a couple of the pages, as if a storybook creature is poised against vivid backdrops of green and of orange. Pasha’s story may not really have happened, but it certainly could have, and the reader wants the setting to always be as true to form as the events and characters.