Crews from Sea World have performed a delicate rescue operation to disentangle a whale that was spotted towing an anchor and rope off the Gold Coast Seaway.
The 10-metre humpback was spotted by researchers from Griffith University in waters off Surfers Paradise this morning who raised the alarm.
The Sea World Rescue team was then deployed to the scene and immediately began to try and help free the mammal.
“In a challenging operation, with the humpback still full of energy and swimming at a pace of 8-10 knots, the team managed to grapple a large buoy onto the trailing rope which put enough pressure to remove the anchor and rope from the whale’s tail fluke,” A Sea World spokesperson told Hot Tomato.
Crews then completed a full visual check to ensure all equipment was removed, with the humpback suffering “minimal superficial wounds to its tail”.
Once given the all-clear, the whale was let go to continue its migration.
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