WHALES SAVED FROM SHARK NETS
AN “EXTREMELY young” whale calf and its mother have been freed after becoming trapped in shark nets off Main Beach yesterday afternoon.
The Sea World Rescue crew and the Department of Fisheries were forced to swoop in and save the pair where they were caught near Marina Mirage.
Sea World’s Head of Marine Sciences Wayne Phillips said the “very successful” rescue had been sparked after nearby residents notified Sea World.
“It appeared the mother hit the whale net and the calf was staying quite close to her and also found itself stuck in the nets,” he said.
“(The calf) was extremely young, it was about a month old so that made the task a little more difficult.
“The whale hit the net at the northern end and disentangled the anchor line there, then managed to head south and re-entangle on itself several times actually.
“It looped around on itself. After that we cut it free but there was still some net attached to the calf so we followed it and attached a buoy line to that net.
“That enabled us to keep track of where they were going, catch up to the whales and remove the final part of the net.”
He said weather conditions on the water had made the rescue even more challenging, with four boats eventually involved.
“You have to have two teams out for safety all the time,” he said.
“And then we happened to have the Shark Control boat on hand, then the police also came by.”
A nearby resident who captured photos of the rescue said he had noticed multiple whales in the area.
“I saw a whale was caught up in the buoys about 150m off the sand,” he said.