An emergency rescue operation is underway for a juvenile humpback whale tangled in netting near Bradley’s Head, in Sydney Harbour.
A tour group spotted the distressed whale about 1.30pm on Thursday and alerted authorities, who launched a rescue effort which had to be abandoned at nightfall.
There were concerns the humpback had left the harbour and travelled further along the coast overnight.
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On Friday, Sunrise reporter Liam Tapper revealed the whale was spotted again in the harbour this morning.
“It certainly is great news in the sense that we have now spotted the whale,” Tapper said.
“This juvenile humpback entangled in the net yesterday … now has been found on Bradley’s Head side of Sydney Harbour.”
7NEWS helicopter images show the whale still tangled in the nets.
“It is still struggling, but it is going up and down, submerging itself, then going back down underwater,” Tapper said.
“It is still stuck in that netting which is of concern for both (whale and dolphin rescue organisation) ORRCA along with Parks and Wildlife.
“They’re going to be the lead operators in this rescue mission now, along with police rescue there as well and other volunteer boats here in the harbour.
“ORRCA had told me earlier was because it is a juvenile, it’s young, and it is quite an aggressive in the sense that it was thrashing around quite a lot — it wasn’t conserving its energy.
“It’s quite a curious animal, being so young. Now, there were concerns it would have tired itself out. Being in the calmer waters in the harbour, it would have conserved a bit of energy, experts have said.
“You can see it blowing off some water there right now, coming up for air before it goes back down again.
“It is still alive. It is still moving throughout the harbour, which is good news. Hopefully it doesn’t make the mission too hard given the fact it is a juvenile whale.”
More to come …
