A humpback whale has been rescued by authorities after it got entangled in fish traps off the Five Islands at Port Kembla early on Saturday.
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Crews from Marine Rescue and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service spent most of the day trying to free the whale, and were finally successful just before 5pm.
"It's on its way," Marine Rescue NSW Inspector Glenn Sullivan said.
The whale was first reported to be entangled whale in the morning before 9.30am, with a private vessel was monitoring the whale while authorities made their way there.
It was found within five miles of the coast, in the Five Islands area.
Earlier, Inspector Sullivan said there was a "good window of opportunity to assist with the disentanglement operation because the weather conditions are favourable", however, by Saturday afternoon conditions were deteriorating.
"I have two rescue assets on scene currently and they're formulating a plan to what they're going to do next," he said at 4pm.
"The whale currently has not been freed. Conditions are slightly deteriorating with the southerly wind coming through and changing the sea state."
He said it looked like the whale was entangled in fish traps.
"There's a series of balls coming off a 60 metre line, which has got a thickish rope to it," Insp Sullivan said.
"There's lots of fish traps out there, they're one of those things [whales] plow through, they don't actually know that they're there.
"And obviously, the more whales there are, as well as the fish traps, the more occurrences we're going to have. But at the end of the day, it's just one of those things that just happens."
He said there were other whales in the area.
"That's why we've got two vessels, to make sure that the crews and maintain proper safety for national parks and wildlife people," he said.
The rescue comes amid a "phenomenal" whale season in the Illawarra, with scores of whales already sighted by keen whale-watchers along this stretch of the coastline.
"It's absolutely fantastic, we've had 40 sightings in the week-and-a-half we've been open in Jervis Bay, and double figures in Shellharbour," Jervis Bay Wild tourism manager Greta Lewis said earlier this week.
"It's just phenomenal.
"The majority of whales spotted down here are humpback whales with the occasional minke and southern right. We have also been fortunate to see two minke whales this season already and one with a calf.
"The water temperature is just right and we've got healthy whales heading north."
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Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
