Humpback whale freed from netting off Point Lookout north of Gold Coast
A SECOND whale in two weeks has had to be freed from ropes and netting off Gold Coast waters, raising a number of questions about animal welfare. SEE THE VIDEO
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A DISTRESSED humpback whale who was freed from metres of ropes and floats this morning near Point Lookout, could have dragged the extra baggage for thousands of kilometres.
Sea World marine sciences director Trevor Long said he suspected the ropes and floats were from lobster pots, suggesting they are from southern NSW or Victoria.
“It was very distressed, and moving very, very fast,” he said.
“At times we found it difficult to keep up with the whale — at no time did it stop.”
The adult humpback, which Mr Long said was around 10m long and weighed up to 30 tonne, was tangled first around the body.
“We were able to free that first, and then we were able to free the remainder,” he said.
“We do believe there is a small bit of rope left on it, but only on one pectoral fin — hopefully it will be able to free itself from that.
“They do an amazing amount of activity, breaches and things, we think it will come free.”
The rescue took about an hour and a half, a beach fisherman off North Stradbroke Island gave crews “close directions to the animal”.
“We tried to attach the large buoy (like normal procedure) but it was very hard, because out the back was only a single rope, so it was proving quite difficult,” he said.
“We were actually able to grapple, and then we tied the whale to our boat, and we used our boat to tire it out, and that seemed to do the trick. Allowing us to get close enough to get up past the second buoy to get an actual cut.
“If we weren’t able to free this whale from all of this, it would have ultimately killed it.
“They take a long time, there was other superficial damage on the dorsal fin where it was nearly cut through, there’s ropes obviously been there before. But if we don’t get to these situations, the animals will ultimately die.
He said the ocean was like a gauntlet for migrating whales and unfortunately we’re expecting more whales in Gold Coast waters over the next few days with netting and ropes trapped around them.
“There are two more with netting coming from around South West Rocks and Crescent Head, and another from Lennox Head.
“There’s groups out there who see these animals and they let us know they are coming through — so hopefully we can try and intercept them.
“It goes to show you some of the difficulties these animals face.
“It’s a real issue and it’s going to get worse. We need to understand that and remove what we can during migration. Then ensure we have trained people and teams that can deal with it after the event’s actually happened.”
It’s the second animal in two weeks that’s been rescued from netting and ropes off Gold Coast waters.
“Last time the animal was reasonable stationary — it was extremely tired,” he said.
“This one was extremely mobile and we couldn’t stop this animal. It took a lot to keep the boat up with it. We were having to drive up on top of it to even get the knives close enough, which made the rescue more difficult.
“It can be very dangerous — anything unpredictable can happen. People shouldn’t get too close. It’s very easy for a propeller to get caught in some rope, but we’re fortunate we’ve been doing it for over 30 years and have a good amount of experience.”
These unfortunate sightings come as it’s reported Migaloo is back in Queensland Waters.