ORRCA marine rescue group’s mission to save young whale

A team of volunteers have pulled off a miraculous rescue operation to save a young whale tangled by coils of rope off the Sydney coastline.

A team of volunteers have pulled off a miraculous rescue operation to save a young whale tangled by coils of rope off the Northern Beaches.

The 11-tonne calf was freed earlier this week thanks to the work of a disentanglement team from ORRCA – a licensed marine rescue group.

The incredible rescue operation to free a young whale from a rope. Picture: ORRCA Australia. Note: Special permission was given for this drone to be flown within 100m of the whale to assist in disentanglement activities.

The young whale was tangled up in rope. Picture: ORRCA Australia

“Young whales are curious and often want to play. The rope was probably fishing rope, displaced by a storm, or displaced from ships in rough sea,” ORRCA vice president Jessica Fox said, adding the rescue was “incredibly dangerous” for volunteers.

“It’s a 30 tonne wild animal that can move any way that it wants at any time. So there is a large risk of a fin strike – even just a splashing action, that can be enough to displace someone from one of those smaller vessels,” she said.

Anyone who spots a whale or dolphin tangled in the wild, should collect details such as GPS location, direction of travel, and description of the entanglement through photos and videos, and then ring the ORRCA rescue hotline on 02 9415 3333.

Originally published as ORRCA marine rescue group’s mission to save young whale