Humpback whales are often entangled in shark nets.
Whales migrating to Australia face added dangers around the coastline from shark nets. Just yesterday a male humpback whale who was migrating to the south coast of Australia, became the second victim this month to get entangled in a shark net.
Luckily this magnificent creature was spotted near to Miami Beach on Queensland’s Gold Coast region and specialists headed out to try and free it.
By the time the rescuers arrived, the young humpback was exhausted and completely entangled. Trevor Long from Australia’s Seaworld was one of the team trying to save it: “It was completely enveloped in the net, it was all over its head, all over its left pectoral fin and then completely wrapped around its tail.�
The team worked for just under 3 hours and then, to sighs of enormous relief, the whale was freed. However the young humpback didn’t seem to realise this at first and it took a little coaxing before he finally slapped the water with his tail and continued on his migration journey.
Shark nets are used around Australia’s coastline to keep sharks away from swimmers. However they are highly controversial, not least because they are designed to capture the sharks until they slowly drown, adhering to the misplaced belief that fewer sharks mean fewer attacks.
The nets also entrap many endangered species such as sea turtles, dugongs, dolphins and whales.
This humpback whale was one of the lucky ones but there will be many more incidents like this that do not have this happy ending until the shark nets are banned.
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