Funding for the renowned whale rescue program at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies could be slashed by more than $350,000 this coming year — a shortfall that would force the center to dismantle its whale disentanglement team, PCCS executive director Rich Delaney said this week.

While in previous years the center has been assured of $450,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), all that has been guaranteed for its whale disentanglement program in the federal FY 2008 budget is $94,000.

“It essentially kills the program,” Delaney said.

Delaney spent most of last week in Washington, D.C., “talking to delegates,” and said he has spoken with “everybody in the northeast division of NMFS [the National Marine Fisheries Service],” the agency under NOAA’s umbrella that has partnered with the center.

“It’s somewhat settled right now,” he said of the cuts, “but there’s time for it to change if NOAA wants to revisit how they allocate their budget.”

If not, the center will have to consider dramatic scale-backs to the disentanglement program beginning Oct. 1.

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