Bummer. The sun's just come up, so I hope they can help this whale out ASAP. 🤞

https://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/humpback-whale-entangled-in-fish-trap-in-sydney-harbour-20240822-p5k4kx.html

#Whales 🐳

Update:

They've found the whale still in Sydney Harbour and are trying to remove the fishing gear now.

Update:

Looks like they've untangled a lot of it because the whale's charging around at speed now, but it's still trailing gear so they're working on attaching buoys closer and closer to the whale so they can cut it free.

It's only a very small juvenile humpback so it's pretty nimble and is leading them on quite a chase.

Update:

They've managed to attach a buoy only a couple of body-lengths back now, so that'll keep the whale nearer the surface so they can close in on it. These people are heroes.

Update:

They're very close now. You can see one strand of rope wrapped around the whale's tail when it breaches, which is good because they'll only need to cut through that to set it free, but they'll want to get right up close and that's gonna be tough in a small inflatable boat with a whale's tail moving around.

Update:

They had to drop back to get more buoys, but they're working their way back up the rope now.

The whale's staying on the surface now, and the rope is clearly visible as the rescuers work their way up it. They're gonna do it. The only question is whether any of them end up in the water with the whale.

Update:

Here's a good shot of where all this is happening. It's quite a long way into the Harbour.

Update:

They managed to hook on a fourth buoy and headed back for another.

Meanwhile, this shows how fast the whale's swimming. Think Jaws with the barrels attached, and it's a bit like that.

Update:

Trying to hook on a 5th buoy to slow it down. They're having to really motor as the poor thing gets more spooked.

Update:

Oh no! The chopper appears to have reached bingo fuel and is RTB.

Hopefully another network is up 🤞

Update:

Unfortunately, none of the other free-to-air networks appear to have anything in the air right now, and there's a big exclusion zone to protect the whale so there're no boats nearby.

There is a cable news network, but it belongs to the evil Murdochs, so I don't have it. And I don't think they have a chopper anyway, which is good because they'd probably try to harpoon the whale or something.

Update:

Fair dinkum, this is frustrating. It's 2024, and every man and his dog has a drone with 4K HD video capability, but you have to listen to the local am radio station to hear a reporter phoning in the status of a whale rescue. 🙄

They just had a bloke on from National Parks & Wildlife, and he says it's all going to plan. They're trying to hang on until the whale tires a bit more so they can get close enough to cut the rope without having their Zodiac flipped over.

Update:

This poor bloke's trying his best, but he's on shore and a long way away. He says it's still going okay.

There was a time when the ABC would have their chopper up to help in the rescue, but the last government was determined to destroy the national broadcaster to help their Murdoch paymasters, so their appointee Ita Buttrose probably sold the chopper off. IYKYK...

Update:

The Nine chopper's been refuelled and is on the way back to the scene 👍

Update:

Okay, they've got 6 buoys attached now and are working their way up to try moving the rear-most ones up closer to the whale. It's still swimming energetically.

Update:

Very close now. They're dropping back down the rope to bring up another buoy.

Their tactic seems to be to leapfrog them up to the whale's tail.

Update:

The rescue team can clearly see the problem now and they were just pointing and talking it over to make a plan.

It looks to me as if it really is only one loop of orange rope.

Now they've dropped back to get a long pole from the other boat.

Update:

Yup. They're about to have a go at it.

Update:

No luck! The tail's just moving too much.

It looks like the fishing gear is trailing about 30-40 metres back from the whale and they've attached some kind of sea-anchor to the far end of it, with the second Zodiac adding extra drag to slow the poor whale down. It's harsh, but the sooner the get the rope cut, the sooner the whale can go back out to its mama.

Update:

They're starting another try. They pull themselves up the fishing gear rope hand over hand. It must be exhausting.

Update:

THEY DID IT!

The whale's just having a bit of a rest and a bask in the sun now, and the rescue crew's just checking to make sure they got all the rope. They seem bullish.

Update:

They got a nice shot of the rescuers (well, except for the one with the GoPro on top of the helmet who's blocked by the bearded bloke's melon 😂 ).

Heroes, every one of them 👏