Sydney, Australia, Aug 23 (EFE).- A young humpback whale tangled in fishing tackle in Sydney harbor was freed on Friday in a risky operation spanning almost 24 hours.
“After some careful cutting [of nets], the whale was freed around 11.15am (01:15 GMT),” the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service reported in a message on Facebook alongside a video of the moment of its release.
The humpback (‘Megaptera novaeangliae’) “is now swimming freely and we have no concerns for its welfare,” added the statement.
The whale, about 13 meters long and thought to be 5-8 years old, was entangled in fishing gear and first spotted at around 1 pm on Thursday near the entrance to Sydney harbor by a group on a whale watching cruise who alerted the ORRCA, a marine animal rescue NGO.
It then swam into the harbor, where a rescue team was unable to free it before nightfall, but placed a tracking device on it. Authorities also enforced a 100-metre safety exclusion zone before it was finally freed Friday afternoon by rescue teams.
ORRCA reported at least three other incidents of whale entanglements this week along the NSW coast, one of the routes by which these cetaceans migrate from Antarctica to subtropical waters between the months of April and November.
During their annual journeys of 10,000 kilometers, these marine mammals, adults which measure up to 18 meters, mate and reproduce before returning to Antarctic waters during the southern summer, where they feed on krill. EFE
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