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On Sunday, onlookers witnessed a juvenile humpback whale calf trapped in a shark net off the coast of Noosa in Queensland, Australia. Authorities were called and rescuers managed to free the calf, but concern remains as to the negative effects of the shark nets on nearby oceanic wildlife.
Ian Chiron was walking at Noosa National Park just after 5 a.m. Tuesday morning when he heard a whale calf’s cries. “I got out of the car and I heard the moan and I thought ‘that’s not right,'” Chiron told ABC News. “We could see a pod of whales hanging around the net area, which is really unusual.” According to Chiron, the calf was 400 meters offshore and badly tangled in shark nets, leading him to phone wildlife rescuers.
“We activated our Marine Animal Release Team [MART],” said Boating and fisheries Noosa district officer Matthew Albiez. However, he stated that a contractor was already nearby and managed to release the calf before the MART team could launch a vessel to aid.
“You could see it splashing and they did a really good job releasing this calf because it’s very dangerous,” said Sea Shepherd volunteer Taylor Ladd-Hudson, who filmed the rescue using a drone. “Her pod was hanging around but they did slowly swim off around the headland so she was all by herself. Hopefully she will be reunited with her mother.”
This was not the only recent incident of a juvenile whale becoming entangled in shark nets. On Sunday, rescuers helped free another calf from nets at Alexandra Headland.
These incidents echo the fears shark net opponents expressed ahead of the reinstallation of nets across Australia. Earlier this year, many councils in New South Wales opposed the return of shark nets, but their concerns were not heeded and the nets went up. Critics claim that the nets are not only ineffective at mitigating shark encounters, but that they can prove dangerous to non-target species, such as whales, who can become trapped in the nets.
