{"id":24500,"date":"2025-01-12T14:40:34","date_gmt":"2025-01-12T14:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/activist\/the-worst-way-of-dying-scientists-urge-coordinated-effort-to-stop-whales-getting-tangled-whales\/"},"modified":"2025-01-12T14:40:34","modified_gmt":"2025-01-12T14:40:34","slug":"the-worst-way-of-dying-scientists-urge-coordinated-effort-to-stop-whales-getting-tangled-whales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=24500","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The worst way of dying\u2019: scientists urge coordinated effort to stop whales getting tangled | Whales"},"content":{"rendered":"


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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.<\/p>\n

Dr Olaf Meynecke, a marine scientist at Griffith University, said the issue of preventing whale entanglements<\/a> was \u201clargely ignored in Australia\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meynecke and his team recorded 45 confirmed entanglements on the country\u2019s east coast last year, but he believes the true figure is about 100. \u201cThey\u2019re really just the tip of the iceberg,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 so slowly that it was \u201cliterally floating south\u201d with the east Australian current.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cdragged the fishing gear for at least two months\u201d.<\/p>\n

While the number of confirmed yearly entanglements is small compared to the now healthy population of humpbacks \u2013 some 40,000 whales<\/a> are estimated to migrate annually along Australia\u2019s east coast \u2013 Meynecke said preventing such incidents was an ethical issue.<\/p>\n

The constant drag of rope and floats over time slowly causes a whale to succumb to exhaustion. \u201cIt\u2019s probably the worst way of dying for any marine \u2026 animal,\u201d Meynecke said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes weeks to several months until they actually die,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen they are on their migration \u2026 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>A whale with rope and line wrapped around its tail near South West Rocks in December.<\/span> Photograph: Ahmet Saner and Chris Dick<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Sea World Foundation was involved in 10 humpback whale rescues in Queensland and New South Wales last year.<\/p>\n

Wayne Phillips, Sea World\u2019s head of marine sciences, said because humpbacks migrate rather than feed along Australia\u2019s east coast, fishing gear was usually entangled on the whales\u2019 tails.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other areas of the world, they\u2019ll get a lot of entanglements through the mouth and around the head area, which makes it really difficult to disentangle, because the animals are using their mouths to scoop feed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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