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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/11/scientists-urge-coordinated-effort-to-stop-whales-getting-tangled>
"At least 45 whales were entangled by fishing ropes and line on the east coast
in 2024, and experts are calling for better management of fishing gear in
Australia to prevent marine suffering.
Dr Olaf Meynecke, a marine scientist at Griffith University, said the issue of
preventing whale entanglements was “largely ignored in Australia”.
Meynecke and his team recorded 45 confirmed entanglements on the country’s east
coast last year, but he believes the true figure is about 100. “They’re really
just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
Only about 15 whales were successfully disentangled in 2024, and improving
disentanglement efforts on the east coast would require better coordination
across multiple jurisdictions, Meynecke said.
Emblematic of the problem, he added, was the case of a juvenile humpback
spotted near South West Rocks in New South Wales on 5 December in bad
condition, dragging rope and floats from its tail.
Two weeks later, on 17 December, it was spotted further south near Terrigal.
Meynecke estimated from drone footage that the whale was travelling 1.2km/h –
so slowly that it was “literally floating south” with the east Australian
current.
A rescue mission successfully removed the rope and floats, but the whale died
and washed up days later at Lakes beach in Budgewoi. Meynecke estimated it had
“dragged the fishing gear for at least two months”.
While the number of confirmed yearly entanglements is small compared to the now
healthy population of humpbacks – some 40,000 whales are estimated to migrate
annually along Australia’s east coast – Meynecke said preventing such incidents
was an ethical issue.
The constant drag of rope and floats over time slowly causes a whale to succumb
to exhaustion. “It’s probably the worst way of dying for any marine … animal,”
Meynecke said.
“It takes weeks to several months until they actually die,” he said. “When they
are on their migration … they would have to travel thousands of kilometres.
Even the smallest float around the tail would mean, over several weeks, a loss
of all energy reserves.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
