Gold Coast: Trapped baby whale freed from shark nets by man in tinny - NEWS.com.au

The hero who took to his tinny on the Gold Coast to free a baby whale tangled in a shark net has been slapped with a fine by authorities.

A whale calf was spotted in distressed by a drone operator about 7am off Burleigh Heads and authorities were called in to help.

But a “suspected communication issue with the Department of Fisheries” delayed the rescue of the trapped mammal, the news website MyGC.com.au reports.

Frustrated, the good Samaritan reportedly jumped into his tinny, raced out to the net and took matters into his own hands.

That decision will now cost the man, with the Gold Coast Bulletin reporting he has been hit with a fine.

Tampering with shark nets is an offence in Queensland that can attract hefty fines. So too is deliberately coming in close proximity to a whale.

Sunrise was at the beach as the drama unfolded and reported that the man leapt into the water and cut the young mammal free from the net, before speeding away again.

“We saw a small dingy with canopy and a sole occupant about 200m from the headland,” a witness told the Gold Coast Bulletin.

“The whale appears to be free now but then a larger boat has turned up.”

The whale’s condition isn’t known.

James Kable, who spotted the whale with his drone, said the mammal was “very distressed, trying to breathe, just on the surface”.

“I got up here for a bit of a sunrise with the surfers and flew out over the nets and saw what looked like a really large mass down there,” Mr Kable told Sunrise.

“Which is very unusual. Obviously the nets are normally quite straight and often very hard to see, and I noticed that there was what looks to be quite a small whale – so it could be a baby, I’m not sure.”

A SeaWorld spokesman told the Bulletin: “At this stage boating and fisheries will be managing the rescue effort. Our team are on standby should they need assistance.”

The Queensland Government has been contacted for comment.

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2020-05-19 04:41:15Z
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