Whale rescued off Gold Coast following weeks entangled, Sea World six hour rescue
A whale has been freed from weeks of entanglement following a six hour rescue on the Gold Coast. WATCH THE RESCUE
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A WHALE that had been entangled for weeks was rescued off the Gold Coast on Monday following a six hour effort.
The 8-10m young humpback whale was spotted about 10.35am on Monday caught in fishing netting and was freed about 4.30pm.
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The team at Sea World had been tracking the same whale for days from Evans Head after seeing the entanglement around it.
Sea World head of marine sciences Wayne Phillips said part of a 200m rope attached to the whale was removed at Evans Head on Friday.
“A lot of it (the rescue) was keeping the whale where we wanted it, which was off the beach and also away from the shark patrol apparatuses,” he said.
“There was a lot of shifting and moving so we could attach the buoys to slow it down.
“It wouldn’t slow down, so we had to put a second and third on.”
Mr Phillips said eventually the whale was freed and swam off strongly but it did suffer cuts to its tail.
“There was quite a bit of damage to the tail fluke and tail stock area but now it’s released everything should be okay,” he said.
“Based on the damage to the peduncle we think it was hooked up somewhere around Tasmania or Victoria and dragged it for quite a while.
“He was moving quite slowly, so maybe for weeks.”
WATCH: Rescuers save humpback whale off Coast
(June 21, 2020)
THE use of smart drumlines to protect swimmers from sharks would have prevented three humpback whales being entangled in controversial nets off the Gold Coast in just three days.
But the proposal to protect beaches with the technology has not moved forward despite migrating whales repeatedly running into trouble off the Coast – including during the latest incident on Sunday.
Sea World Rescue and the Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol’s (QBFP) Marine Animal Release Team were called to rescue a younger 8-10m whale of an unknown gender off Surfers Paradise about 6.30am.
They spent at least an hour cutting the massive marine mammal free using a specialised curved knife.
On Friday, rescuers freed a mother and a calf which became tangled in shark nets off Main Beach.
Sea World Head of Marine Sciences Wayne Phillips said the latest rescue was complex because the whale snapped an anchor line and trapped itself.
However, “within about an hour the guys had the whale free and released and swimming on its merry way”.
“The whale was quite entangled. Mainly over the head and right (pectoral fin), which was obviously stopping it from moving,” Mr Phillips said.
“We are going to see more whale entanglements because the population is so healthy that travels along this route.
“We do understand it’s a difficult situation for the Queensland Government. We would like to see less nets during the whale migration and we are working with the Fisheries Department on that.”
Mr Phillips said replacing nets with smart drumlines was “the messaging that we’re pushing out for our Fisheries friends”.
TWO WHALES FREED FROM SHARK NETS OFF THE GOLD COAST
On June 7, Tugun surfer Rob Pedretti, 60, was fatally mauled by a 3m great white shark at Salt Beach near Kingscliff in the Tweed just after 10am. The beach did not have shark control gear installed.
About a month ago, a younger humpback was caught in netting off Burleigh Heads. A man known only as “Django” was celebrated as a hero after he took his tinny into the water and saved the calf, cutting its fin free.
He dodged a fine from the department for entering a 20m exclusion zone around shark control gear and instead received a formal warning.
Humpback whales migrate along the Australian east coast after summers spent feeding on krill in the Antarctic. They head to warmer waters to mate and give birth.
QBFP Shark Control Program manager Michael Mikitis urged anyone who notices an entangled marine animal to phone the program hotline on 1800 806 891.
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