Heartbreaking Clip Shows a Humpback Whale and Her Calf Entangled in a Shark Net

Every year, at the end of the summer, pods of humpback whales set forth on a long voyage, migrating from the freezing waters of the Antarctic towards the warm, sub-tropical waters of the north, where they would spend the next few days lactating and feeding their newborn calves. Dubbed “humpback highways,” the migratory path brings them close to the Australian coastline. This coastline is dotted with shark nets, anchored by a chain to the seafloor as part of a protection mechanism designed to prevent sharks from attacking the swimmers. Oftentimes, as these humpback whales are crossing the Australian waters, they bump into these nets, becoming “entangled." Geoff Aquino (@geoffaquino) recently captured this heartbreaking scene unfolding on the Sunshine Coast in Australia.

“This Humpback mum and calf are currently entangled in the Noosa shark net,” Aquino, The Drone Guy, and a content creator, wrote in the caption of the video. “We hope the calf survives the night,” he added with concern. The video displayed the two whales, the mom and the calf, struggling to disentangle from the net as they were propelled with unrest trapped in it. Describing the footage, Dr. Olaf Meynecke, a mammal researcher at Griffith University in East Queensland, Australia, said it clearly showed the stressed mother “rolling into the net and actually wrapping up the calf,” per The Guardian.

The dramatic episode unfolded on Wednesday, September 17, off the Noosa beach. Calling out on the irony of these “shark nets,” Aquino said they do more harm than good. Instead of protecting the swimmers, the nets often act as “death traps” for the whales passing by. This, the videographer enraged, is “disheartening, disgraceful, and enraging, and I was forced to witness it - right here where I call home.”

These nets aren’t the only barriers whales encounter as they navigate their migration. Many of them experience “entanglement” from traps like drumlines, crab pots, longlines, gillnets, and ghost nets that cut into their blubber and cause them to bleed, which provokes the prowling sharks for real. In this case, thankfully, a Shark Control Program contractor was brought in to cut the whales loose from the tangled netting, as confirmed by the Department of Primary Industries (DPI).

The mom and bub were freed from the net at about 11:30 pm on the same day, according to 7News. At this point, two other whales were trapped in the same netting. “A humpback whale and calf have been successfully released after becoming entangled in a shark net at Noosa,” a DPI spokesperson told the news outlet. However, despite getting freed, the whales were observed to be carrying pieces of the netting clinging to their bodies.

Meanwhile, Meynecke told The Guardian that humpback whales get caught in shark nets every year, but this was the “first case” involving four whales trapped at once. Over the years, officials have pondered solutions to resolve this dilemma. One solution, according to Vanessa Pirotta, is to remove the shark nets during the winter to avoid the main part of whale migration. Pirotta, a wildlife scientist, described in The Conversation that this measure is already implemented in New South Wales and should be applied in Australia as well.

You can follow Geoff Aquino (@geoffaquino) on Instagram to watch more drone footage from Australian oceans.