Australia’s got a problem: what to do about the sharks? Some say leave them alone. Others say kill them all. Of course, there are those somewhere in the middle, as well. Whatever Australia does, someone’s going to be pissed. Off the Gold Coast, they’re going with shark nets. But shark nets catch more than sharks.
On Saturday, a humpback calf was found tangled in a shark net near Coolangatta Beach. Its mother stayed close by its side while SeaWorld rescuers and the Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol worked diligently to cut it free.
As the team cut the net from the whale calf’s tail, the mother kept the calf near the surface so it wouldn’t drown. According to a spokesman for the Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol, the rescue went well because the whales were calm. “Mum had just pushed into the nets slightly to help keep the calf up on the surface which she was doing quite well,” Mark Saul said to ABC.
Not long after the rescuers arrived on the scene, the whales were freed and making their way back out to sea. “After a few cuts, a bit of mesh away, they both just swam away to the southeast,” Saul continued. “It swam away with its mother to the south, in good health and condition.
