Caught and dead: Dark side to Gold Coast whale season

Whale season has officially started, with record numbers tipped, but there’s a dark side to the story for this city.

From Main Beach to Coolangatta, our city’s sparkling coastline boasts one of the longest whale watching seasons in the country … but also one of the most dangerous.

Because when it comes to the 5000km whale super-highway from Cairns to Antarctica, Gold Coast beaches are a notorious black spot.

The Queensland Shark Control Program, which first installed ocean nets in 1962, has documented 159 whale entanglements and eight deaths since then, with the majority of entanglements, 84, occurring on the Gold Coast.

New statistical analysis of QSCP catch data by environmental group The Envoy Foundation has projected 17 whale entanglements this year alone, as well as the potential for one whale death.

Envoy founder Andre Borell

Envoy founder Andre Borell said previous research indicated that iconic albino whale Migaloo might have been killed by a Queensland shark net.

Mr Borell, who grew up enjoying Gold Coast beaches but was now based in Singapore, said he could not understand why the Queensland Government would not at least remove nets during the winter months of the whale migration season.

He said even the QSCP’s own scientific working group had recommended that action but had been ignored, meaning our coastline was once again the place to watch whales get caught.

“Since whales have been protected, their numbers have increased – but so too have their entanglements,” said Mr Borell, creator of 2021 documentary Shark Cull which premiered at Pacific Fair.

“In response to that, New South Wales has removed nets during the peak of the migration season since 1989. Yet Queensland, other than a brief respite in the early 1990s, continues to deploy shark nets year-round.

“This proactive approach from NSW has notably decreased humpback whale entanglements off their coastline, to almost zero.

“We just don’t understand why the Premier of Queensland and other key Ministers refuse to support the repeated and consistent recommendation from their own Queensland Shark Control Program’s scientific working group to remove nets during the annual humpback migration.”

Mr Borell said the death rate of entangled whales could actually be much higher as the State Government did not monitor whales post-release.

Envoy founder Andre Borell underwater. Picture: Ludovica Atticciati

He said entanglement mitigation methods such as whale alarms, or ‘pingers’, had also repeatedly been proven ineffective.

“Queensland relies heavily on pingers, which are promoted as an effective solution to deter whales from entanglements, but there are multiple scientific studies that suggest they are completely ineffective – for whales and for dolphins,” said Mr Borell.

“Meanwhile, the Queensland government encourages the celebration of ‘successful’ releases of humpback whales entangled in nets, but Department of Fisheries catch data reveals that some of these whales are being released while still entangled or dragging remnants of QSCP equipment like chains, ropes, or netting, significantly endangering their chances of survival.

“The Department claims this is due to the difficulty and danger to rescue teams involved in the release, but experts like Wayne Phillips, the head of Marine Sciences at Sea World Queensland, has said it can be a death sentence.

“His quote was that ‘even the smallest amount of gear will slowly cut into the animal. So if we don’t remove everything … it is a slow death and it’s not a nice one’.

“The number of unreported incidents involving self-released whales, those still dragging equipment and unwitnessed deaths is unknown because the government doesn’t monitor whales post-release.

“The only reason we can think of why they wouldn’t tag each animal released, which is relatively cheap and easy, is because they want plausible deniability. If they don’t know the whale has died, they don’t have to report it.”

Mr Borell said if whales or nets were tagged, then a more accurate data set would be available, including, perhaps, the location of Migaloo.

The white whale has not been seen since 2020, with a shark net disappearing off the Sunshine Coast in 2021.

“It is plausible that Migaloo was alive and on the Queensland coastline in 2021, and was entangled in this Rainbow Beach shark net overnight on August 20-21,” he said.

Mr Borell said last year 138 non-shark marine animals were captured by shark nets or drum lines, including 28 mammals such as dolphins and whales and 38 sea turtles.

He said removing shark nets was not a question of prioritising animal life over human life, but realising that nets killed animals and did not keep humans safe.

The State Government has consistently rejected calls to remove shark nets, maintaining it would risk human safety.

A total of 959 sharks, some as big as 5m, were caught by Queensland shark nets and drumlines last year, up from 753 the previous year.

Statistics show there have only been two fatal shark attacks at netted beaches in Queensland, but

Mr Borell said that was not due to the shark nets but the number of people at these popular beaches.

He said shark attacks were just as likely at netted beaches, but the presence of bystanders meant they were less likely to die, with previous research from the University of Sydney showing that 63 per cent of shark attacks at ocean beaches in New South Wales occurred at netted beaches.

Sea World Rescue team and Queensland Fisheries successfully disentangled an 8-metre Humpback whale from shark nets at Currumbin. Picture: Sea World

“The number of shark bites is the same between beaches with and without nets,” he said.

“The difference is that netted beaches have fewer fatalities … but have you ever seen the shark net tie a tourniquet on a shark bite? The reason those people survive is because netted beaches have lifeguards, communication systems and have quick access to hospitals and medevac helicopters. It’s nothing to do with the net.

“The most dangerous misconception is that people think they are a barrier. What they are is an indiscriminate killing tool that means death to anything that swims into it … and they are comically small.

“If you add up all 11 nets on the Gold Coast they would stretch for 2km, but our coastline is 35km.

“We did the maths and that’s the equivalent of a table tennis net on Rod Laver Arena.

“If we’re serious about shark safety, let’s teach people to be shark smart – don’t swim at dawn and dusk, and let’s invest in drones for monitoring.

“Shark nets do nothing but kill marine life, and they kill far more dolphins and turtles and whales than they do actual sharks. They are only there as a political placebo – it makes people feel better and the government look good.”

Mr Borell said he would love to see the Gold Coast’s Sea World Rescue Team be more vocal about the damage caused by shark nets.

He said he applauded their work in releasing whales but believed they could make a difference, too, in net removal.

“They do oppose shark culling, which is what shark nets are designed for, but I would love to see them use their platform to be a bit more vocal post-rescue,” he said.

“I know it’s a tricky situation politically but it could make a big difference.”

With the 2024 whale season tipped to see record numbers, with up to 50,000 mammals swimming down our super-highway, Mr Borell said it was not too late to make this the safest season for our favourite travellers.