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Sea World Foundation last weekend conducted a complex three-day rescue operation including putting divers in the water to save a humpback whale which had become anchored to the seafloor by trawler wire off the Iluka Bluff in Northern NSW.

The eight-metre humpback was reported to Sea World Foundation by ORRCA on Wednesday 3rd July after being stationary for a longer period than usual, so the team developed a plan to travel to Iluka to attempt the rescue operation the following morning.

Despite poor weather conditions including 3.5metre swells and winds of up to 35 knots, the highly trained team commenced the operation to free the whale on Thursday 4th July, using specialised cutting knives and grappling tools, however after spending four hours with the whale and not managing to cut the entanglement despite engaging with it on multiple occasions and with the weather deteriorating further, the operation was postponed.  

Once back on shore, the team reviewed the underwater footage, and identified the entanglement was not rope, but 20mm thick trawler wire which is uncuttable with normal cutting knives.

After careful consideration and collaboration with New South Wales Parks & Wildlife, a plan was developed to send divers into the water to use underwater tools to cut the wire from the whale to free it from being anchored. On Saturday morning, the rescue team successfully completed the dive operation to cut the wire 50cms from the whale’s tail allowing it to swim away and continue its northern migration with a small amount of wire remaining on its tail.   

Sea World Head of Marine Sciences, Wayne Phillips said this was one of the most incredibly complex rescue operations the team has conducted due to the type of entanglement and weather and sea conditions.  

Phillips shared “without intervention this whale would have died a slow and painful death and I am incredibly proud of our team who completed the operation in such trying and testing conditions to give the whale a second chance at survival.  

“With a traditional disentanglement operation, we don’t enter the water but unfortunately in this case, due to the wire, there was no choice and we had to send divers into the water making this a high-risk operation, but the team did an amazing job to complete the rescue and come home safe.  

“While we managed to remove a large amount of wire and free the whale from being anchored to the seafloor where it had been for ten days, there was a remaining wrap on the whale’s tail which we could not access to remove, and we hope over time this may peel out and remove itself.  

“These operations could not be achieved without the support from New South Wales Parks & Wildlife and ORRCA and we thank them for their assistance throughout the process.”

Images: The Iluka Whale Rescue (top, credit: Sharyn Coffee from ORRCA) and a still from video of whale rescue (below, credit: Sea World Foundation).

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