For one humpback whale off Australia's coast, an entanglement with fishing equipment would have proved fatal — had a team of heroes not come quickly to the rescue.
The Guardian recounted the life-saving rescue efforts, which happened earlier this summer off Victoria's Gippsland coast. The whale was initially spotted by a commercial helicopter, moving slowly under the weight of what turned out to be 800 kilograms — over 1,700 pounds, nearly a ton — of old fishing equipment.
After disappearing for several days, it was spotted again, and rescuers hopped into action. Special whale disentanglement crews were assembled from three different groups, the Victoria Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, the Victorian Fisheries Authority, and Parks Victoria. Their first move, according to the Guardian, was to attach a tracker to the whale in case they lost sight of it again.
Then, they tackled the fishing equipment itself, which included tangled and waterlogged ropes as well as buoys. The equipment had severely impeded the whale's ability to swim and stay properly afloat; when it was removed, police lifted it from the water with a crane to ensure it would not entangle any more marine creatures.
"The whale was so tightly tangled in the ropes and it wasn't travelling very far so we knew it was in real distress," Inspector James Dalton of Victoria's water police told the Guardian.
Sadly, this is a common problem in Australia and beyond. According to nonprofit group Ocean Conservancy, 45% of all marine mammals on IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species have been impacted by plastic litter such as old fishing equipment, by consuming it or becoming stuck or otherwise entangled. A single abandoned net, it reported, "is estimated to kill on average 500,000 marine invertebrates, 1,700 fish, and 4 seabirds."
But fortunately for this whale, this story has a happy ending. On the first day, the rescuers removed over 90% of the rope surrounding it; using the tracker, they returned shortly thereafter to finish the job.
DEECA incident controller Ellen Dwyer described the whale as showing remarkably "good spirits" despite a stressful situation, the Guardian reported.
"This was a huge team effort and we're so happy that it had a great outcome," Dalton said.
It isn't just a win for the whale; Australia has witnessed a boom in nature-based tourism — growing by 37% from 2023, according to the Guardian — and the greater the populations of species such as the humpback, the more alluring the destination will be. In Queensland alone, nature tourism is projected to bring in $5.6 billion dollars this year.
"Not only is it good for tourism … [and] our visitor economy, but it educates people on the importance of the delicate ecosystem," Queensland tourism minister Michael Healy told the Guardian.
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