The whale entangled in the line was spotted by a photographer about two weeks ago and there were concerns the situation could lead to its death.
University of Otago research fellow Dr Will Rayment said it was unlikely anyone would see it while the weather was bad, but he believed the whale had probably moved elsewhere by now.
"The chance of seeing it again is a bit slim."
The whale could have naturally disentangled itself, or if the rope was towing gear it would be restricting its ability to feed and over time would wear it down to the point it could die, he said.
Entanglement was one of the dangers faced by the whales as they returned to the New Zealand coast.
Dr Rayment said the team of researchers had been in the Auckland Islands to study the habitat preferences and movement patterns of whales as well as the winter diet of New Zealand sea lions and the pollutant loads in marine wildlife.
It was the second trip during a three-year multidisciplinary research project.
The trip was more challenging due to the wind and snow to sea level which hit the islands during the trip, he said.
As Port Ross, where Otago University research vessel Polaris II was based, was sheltered and home to many whales, they were able to continue their work.
A time-lapse digital camera which had been left in the port for a year was recovered and it was hoped the 7000 images would show a full year of the mammal's use of the port.
While the numbers "were still to be crunched", impressions were the number of whales in the area was similar to last year and that they were in good condition.
"They looked fat and healthy."
For the first time they travelled to other areas of the islands to see if there were similar populations of the whales but found none.
The unusually high number of ships visiting the port meant the usually pristine acoustic environment of the area was not as good as usual, affecting the planned recordings to see the ways the whales communicated, he said.
The results of the research will be released in 2012.