A humpback whale that became tangled in 800kg of fishing equipment has been rescued off Victoria’s Gippsland coast, almost a week after it was first seen to be in trouble, while in Queensland a whale was saved from a shark net.
The whale was spotted near Loch Sport in central Gippsland on Sunday 23 June by a commercial helicopter but then disappeared until Friday, when it was seen near Lake Tyers off the south-east coast.
A large-scale rescue operation, run by specialised whale disentanglement crews from the Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (Deeca), Victorian Fisheries Authority and Parks Victoria, began by attaching a tracker to the whale so they would not lose it again.
On Saturday the team cut off 800kg of tangled ropes and buoys, which had severely restricted the animal’s ability to swim. Police lifted the equipment out of the water with a crane to make sure it was not dangerous to other vessels or wildlife.
The Deeca incident controller, Ellen Dwyer, said rescuers removed about 185 metres of the 200 metres of rope the whale was believed to be entangled in, as the animal was “moving around a fair bit”, making it difficult for the rescue team to approach from a closer distance.
She said despite being tangled in rope and buoys, the whale was in “good spirits”.
Insp James Dalton of Victoria’s water police said the search was completely different to the ones they were used to.
“The whale was so tightly tangled in the ropes and it wasn’t travelling very far so we knew it was in real distress,” he said.
“To safely cut the ropes away, we needed to return the following day to ensure we could successfully remove enough of the rope that it could swim freely again. This was a huge team effort and we’re so happy that it had a great outcome.”
Whales are recorded to live beyond 50 years but some of the biggest risk factors to their lives are human activities including fishing gear, boats and pollution, as well as natural predators such as orcas.
A whale was caught in a shark net on Monday morning at Queensland’s Marcoola beach, the second incident in less than a month.
The whale was rescued by onlookers, despite it being illegal in Queensland to come within 20 metres of shark nets.
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An onlooker described the whale as “unusually still, yet still breathing”. The whale “appeared to be tangled and had been floating on the surface for over 10 minutes without moving”.
From 2014-23, Queensland’s shark nets and drumlines have captured 7,808 unintended non-target animals, including 734 protected species, according to marine conservation organisation Sea Shepherd.
Marine tour operator Peter Lynch said more whales were expected to be seen in Queensland this year than in previous years.
“It’s a recovering population and it’s another success story that Australia and Queensland should be proud of,” he said, referring to the population growth from just 500 in 1978 – when hunting was banned – to about 35,000-40,000 whales today.
As whales migrate up the east coast in search of warmer waters, more than 127,000 domestic visitors were expected to travel to see the whales.
There had already been a 37% increase in interest in nature-based tourism this year compared with 2023. It was expected to bring $5.6bn to the Queensland economy.
Queensland’s tourism minister, Michael Healy, said: “Not only is it good for tourism … [and] our visitor economy, but it educates people on the importance of the delicate ecosystem.”