It’s been an action-packed weekend for Sea World rescue crews on the Gold Coast, who have worked to free several humpback whales.
Crews were first called to Coolangatta on Sunday following reports of a whale trapped in commercial fishing gear.
“The whale was a sub-adult humpback at around 8 metres and had a line from a crab pot stuck in its mouth, with the team deploying two large buoys to the rope with the pressure from this freeing the rope from the whale’s mouth,” Sea World Foundation Head of Marine Sciences Wayne Phillips said.
Not long after, crews raced to a second entangled humpback off Burleigh Heads after the team at Coolie Eco Adventures raised the alarm.
Both whales were entangled in commercial fishing equipment including ropes, floats and traps, but thankfully the Sea World team managed to successfully remove all the netting from both whales in just over three hours on the water.
Mr Phillips said it was a big day on the water, but the team did an amazing job responding to the two separate entanglements.
“It was an incredible effort by the team to respond to back-to-back rescues, and I am proud we could remove the equipment from the whales to allow them to continue their migration without the entanglements,” he said.
In addition to the Gold Coast rescues, crews also rescued an entangled whale off Byron Bay on Saturday.
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