A humpback whale and her calf were caught in shark nets off Kurrawa Beach on Saturday. While the mother lived, the calf didn’t. Image: Yahoo 7
Shark nets have been a hot button subject for a long time. Not so much as those baited drum lines that WA put out, but a lot of people hate nets. That’s because they kill things other than sharks quite often, as was the case a few days ago when a baby humpback whale got tangled up in one and died.
Both the calf and the mother were trapped in the nets off Kurrawa Beach on July 14th, but only the mother was able to escape. Rescue crews raced to the scene once alerted to the issue. At first, it looked as though it was only the mother that was trapped. Then, though, they realized the baby was underneath. “These two humpbacks were only just slightly entangled,” said Matt Davidson of Boating and Fisheries Patrol to Yahoo 7 News. “The juvenile calf was caught around the pec, and the mother around the head.”
The crew managed to cut the mother whale free, but it was too late for the calf. “It’s bittersweet we did as much as we could,” Davidson continued, “but I can honestly say that calf was already deceased when we got out there.”
Since right now is the peak of whale migration season, protesters are calling for the shark nets to be removed from Gold Coast beaches.
