Rescuers saves two humpback whales tangled in fishing line off Fremantle, third whale freed near Busselton

Rescuers have successfully freed a pair of humpback whales entangled in fishing line off the Perth coast.

Efforts to untangle the line from the whales continued on Monday after the 20-tonne mammals were spotted by a commercial whale-watching vessel on Sunday afternoon between Fremantle and Rottnest Island.

Parks and wildlife officers from the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions attached a satellite tracking tag to one of the whales before it was freed around 8am on Monday.

DBCA Swan Coastal Acting District Manager Melissa Evans confirmed that both animals had been freed from the fishing line by 2.30pm on Monday.

“We actually managed to locate the second entangled whale (in waters) off Cottesloe,” Ms Evans said.

“The team have been working on that all day, and I’ve just heard from the boat that they’ve managed to disentangle that second whale as well.”

“It would have been a really bad outcome for those animals... that weight on that animal would have been detrimental to their well-being.”

A third humpback also caught in fishing line was freed near Geographe Bay on Monday by DBCA officers based in Busselton.

“That animal had been entangled for a number of days, and they’d been waiting for an opportunity that was safe enough for the team to get out. “

“That whale also had a satellite tag attached to it, which meant that they were able to track that animal and respond in a safe manner.”

One of the whales that was initially sighted near Rottnest Island was understood to be dragging floats and rope.

Ms Evans said all three animals were observed swimming away after being freed from the fishing line. It is expected the humpbacks will now continue their southern migration towards Antarctica.

“Unfortunately, these accidents happen... we are lucky to have fantastic specialist trade staff to be able to head out and help in what is not a very nice situation for these animals,” she said.

“The whales are significant sizes, the two from today (near Fremantle) were nine meters and 10 meters (long).”

“They are 20-tonne animals that they are dealing with — It’s not something that we take lightly.

“We don’t want anyone to be discarding any rubbish, fishing line, or anything that’s not meant to be in the ocean.”

It comes after a southern right whale mother and calf have been spending time close to shore in Mandurah, which Ms Evans said was normal behaviour.

They were in Madora Bay on Monday.