Whale freed after towing fishing buoy all the way from Mornington Peninsula to Fingal Head

A rescue team has successfully freed a distressed whale from a fishing buoy it towed all the way to the Queensland-NSW border after it became tangled off Mornington Peninsula more than a week ago. WATCH THE VIDEO

A whale snared by a fishing buoy has been freed after towing the equipment for hundreds of kilometres from Victoria to the Queensland-NSW border.

The 25-tonne adult humpback became entangled in Breakwater Bay on the Mornington Peninsula more than a week ago.

A Sea World Foundation rescue team, which has been monitoring the distressed animal, managed to free the whale on Wednesday in a delicate and dangerous operation off Fingal Head, south of the Gold Coast.

The SeaWorld rescue team in action.

A Sea World Helicopters crew helped locate the whale in a rescue mission also involving the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service, Volunteer Marine Rescue and ORRCA (Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia).

“The on-board team then carefully approached the whale and were able to secure a large float to the entanglement, with the friction of this added weight causing the rope and buoys to be removed from the whale,” a Sea World spokesman said.

The whale towed the buoy from Victoria after becoming tangled a week ago.

“The team stayed with the whale to ensure it was fully disentangled, with the helicopter crews also observing no remaining entanglements.”

Sea World Foundation skipper Andy Mulville said the rope had started cutting into the whale but it now appeared to be “healthy and moving fast”.

“We feel very fortunate that we had the weather (and) all the organisations involved to put us on the money today,” he said.