A whale that found itself stranded in the shallows off Australia’s New South Wales coast is back in deep water, and the rescue was caught on camera. The whale, a juvenile humpback, was stranded multiple times over the course of a few days, but finally, it decided to keep to deeper waters.
“Rescue crews from the Sea World Foundation, NSW National Parks, ORRCA Australia, Forster Dive, Center, and Barray Alliance Rangers successfully freed the sub-adult humpback whale from the Forster area late this afternoon,” wrote the Sea World Foundation on Instagram on April 17. “Following the initial rescue attempts on Tuesday, the nine meter, 10-ton whale unfortunately re-stranded on a sandbank late Thursday night prompting the urgent multi-agency rescue operation which commenced Friday morning.”
Using special slings, the rescue teams managed to tow the whale off the sandbank it was stuck on and out into the main channel, where it could swim freely.
“This was a tremendous outcome which couldn’t have been achieved without the collaborative efforts of a multitude of stakeholders, and rescuers were elated to see the whale finally swim out of the river mouth and into the open ocean late today,” the Sea World Foundation continued. “We also want to say a massive thank you to the NSW Police, Marine Rescue NSW, the Mid Coast Council, and the wider Forster-Tuncurry community who rallied behind this whale to give it its best chance of survival.”
The footage you see here was captured by Daryn McKenny from the Organization for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans (ORRCA). It shows the teams covering the whale in wet blankets as they work to keep it cool.
“Over six days, this whale stranded multiple times across the estuary system, turning the rescue into a technically challenging and evolving (one),” Ashley Ryan, ORRCA President, said. “It took an extraordinary level of coordination and expertise from all agencies involved to keep adapting to the situation.”
Now the whale is free, it appears to be continuing along with its migration — and hopefully it learned a valuable lesson.
