Whale tangled in fishing gear freed in Sydney Harbour after 24-hour rescue operation

A young humpback whale was freed from fishing gear that had entangled its tail in Sydney Harbour on Friday following a 24-hour rescue operation.

Rescuers were alerted to the 13-metre juvenile whale by operators of a whale watching cruise ship in the harbour at 1pm on Thursday.

A rescue attempt involving boats, helicopters and drones began Thursday afternoon and resumed at first light Friday.

Two boats of specialist crews freed the mammal and watched it swim toward Sydney Heads and the open Pacific Ocean at 11.15am on Friday morning.

The team used buoys to help keep the animal still as staff worked to cut the rope away.

Macquarie University whale expert Vanessa Pirotta said the whale may have been entangled far earlier than Thursday.

“Is the whale OK? I hope, I don’t really know. The reality is this animal has been through a huge ordeal,” she told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“Being entangled in fishing gear is an awful thing, but then having boats and drones in the busiest harbour on Earth, Sydney Harbour — it’s just incredible to see where this has just unfolded”.

Luke McSweeney, who led the team helping to disentangle the whale, told CNN: “The challenge with that whale was that it had so much energy.

“It took quite a long time for us to tire it out so that we could get in and do that cut safely.”

Humpback whales usually sail north for warmer waters in June and July before returning south in September and November.

In 2021, Australian marine rescuers freed a humpback whale entangled in a shark net off Queensland 's Gold Coast.

Rescuers used blades at the end of long poles to try and cut a large mass of netting with orange buoys and yellow weights off the whale's tail.