Humpback whale tightly entangled in commercial fishing rope rescued

Humpback whale entangled in commercial fishing rope rescuedSource: Sea World Foundation

Transcript

00:00We got a call from Blue Safaris Charters about a whale that was in distress and that they

00:08found to have an entanglement just off the Koolangana Beach.

00:11So the team got ready, we sent the guys out, and a needle in a haystack, we were able to

00:17find a whale after about an hour and a half of searching.

00:20We were able to get a grapple and a large keg on that whale, but through the process

00:24of this entanglement, the rope did break and the whale did swim off with some rope extremely

00:31tightly wrapped around its tail fin.

00:33So it was great to have Dr. Clare on board today to inspect the animal, look at the condition

00:39of it.

00:40We did note that there was significant skin lesions as well as a bunch of sea lice across

00:45this individual, which all reflected a compromised animal.

00:49So there's a whole plethora of things that do occur secondarily to an entanglement.

00:55So this does include these parasites that we see, potentially other issues occur such

01:01as dehydration, poor nutrition.

01:05This unfortunately was evident with this individual.

01:08The animal is made at this far north, so that is a good sign, and let's just hope this individual

01:13can head back south and get some good nutrition.

01:16It's been a busy year.

01:17We've already had up to six animals that we've tried to help this season.

01:21It's very sad.

01:23Lots of whales passing by with commercial gear attached to them.

01:26So we just encourage all the commercial fishers out there to manage their gear properly and

01:31if they do lose anything, to notify the authorities so that we can keep an eye out for these animals

01:37and hopefully we can help them.