Sea World Foundation rescues entangled whale off North Stradbroke Island

The Sea World Foundation rescue team yesterday conducted its sixth whale rescue operation of the 2024 migration season to free an eight metre humpback whale entangled in rope off North Stradbroke Island.  

It was a complex rescue operation with the Sea World Helicopters providing vital aerial support to locate the whale and provide invaluable insight into the type of entanglement following the initial reports from the member of public.  

After following the coordinates supplied by the Sea World Helicopter team, the rescue crew on the boat located the helicopter and whale five nautical miles off the coast of North Stradbroke Island and commenced the operation to remove the rope which was loosely entangled around the tail.

The team connected their large buoys to the trailing rope with the friction of this extra weight managing to free the tail entanglement, however there was rope remaining in the whale’s mouth.  

As the operation progressed further into the afternoon, the team reconnected another buoy with a satellite tracker which would allow them to continue the operation the following day should they lose light, however the extra weight of the buoy and tracker put the whale in a position which allowed the team to remove the remaining rope slowly and carefully from the whale’s mouth.

The team conducted a full assessment ensuring the whale had no further entanglement before leaving it to continue its northern migration.  

Sea World Curator of Operations, Mitchell Leroy said this was a successful outcome which could not have been achieved without the aerial support from Sea World Helicopters.  

Leroy shared “Thanks to the help of Sea World Helicopters we were able to locate the whale and conduct this rescue operation in a timely manner and it was incredible to remove all of the entanglement and watch the whale continue onto its migration.”

Images. Still from videos. Credit: Sea World Foundation