![\"Bianca](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769750950_824_853f241356cf997976052905dc14366e4f262b35.png\")
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February 17, 2026 \u2014 3:42pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n The sight is distressing: a juvenile humpback whale, separated from its mother, and so badly entangled in ropes it bears deep cuts and scars along the length of its body.<\/p>\n This is the predicament facing authorities and locals along the NSW and Victorian coasts, who have over the past fortnight spotted the calf with ropes tightly wound around the base of its dorsal fin.<\/p>\n Deep welts indicate the ropes have shifted over a period of time, inflicting multiple wounds on the juvenile whale.<\/p>\n The Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia (ORRCA) first received a report of an entangled young whale off Tathra, on NSW\u2019s far south coast, on January 31.<\/p>\n ORRCA spokeswoman Pip Jacobs said the juvenile whale was next seen more than 200 kilometres north, off the coast of Jervis Bay, on February 4. <\/p>\n Late last week it was spotted again \u2013 this time off Refuge Cove, on the eastern side of Wilsons Promontory National Park, on the Victorian side of the border and heading south.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cIt does look like quite a young whale, like it\u2019s potentially just left its mother, and that normally happens after about a year old,\u201d Jacobs said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut this particular whale is also showing a lot of decline in body condition, likely due to the entanglement \u2026 it is seemingly underweight, so that also impedes our ability to age it.\u201d<\/p>\n Jacobs said a specialised whale entanglement team would be required to free the animal if found.<\/p>\n \u201cDisentanglement is incredibly difficult and dangerous,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you can imagine, a humpback whale can weigh up to 40 tonnes, and it is a large animal that is in stress as well.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe would never encourage any member of the public to disentangle a whale on their own, because they\u2019re not licensed to do so, but also because it\u2019s incredibly dangerous, [depending] on water conditions, as well as the condition of the whale and how it\u2019s behaving.\u201d<\/p>\n It is unusual to see humpback whales at this time of year in Australian waters.<\/p>\n Ongoing attempts by search teams on private vessels and authorities in Victoria to locate the animal, last spotted on the weekend, have been unsuccessful.<\/p>\n Orcas, also known as killer whales, which are known to prey upon juvenile humpback whales, are also in the area.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Victoria\u2019s Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) Incident Management Team said the whale had been moving very slowly and appeared underweight.<\/p>\n The spokesperson said abandoned, lost and discarded fishing gear, known as ghost nets, are a global problem directly impacting marine life such as whales.<\/p>\n Related Article DEECA Incident Controller Renee Hutchison said the ongoing search had covered a vast area since the whale was first reported to Victorian authorities on February 14.<\/p>\n \u201cThe area we are searching with spotter planes is quite large, which means people in boats near Wilsons Promontory are a valuable resource to complement the DEECA search efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n The Captain Paul Watson Foundation, which is in Victoria preparing to depart for Antarctica to interrupt commercial krill hunts<\/a> and has been helping efforts to find the humpback, urged anyone who has seen the whale to contact authorities.<\/p>\n A group of 24 activists on board the MV Bandero, including 10 Australians, have been moored in Victorian waters ahead of their planned expedition to Antarctica to disrupt international krill fishing operations.<\/p>\n ORRCA has urged members in Victoria and Tasmania to report any sightings of the whale to DEECA Emergency Whale and Dolphin Rescue Hotline on 1300 136 017 or ORRCA on (02) 9415 3333.<\/p>\n Get to the heart of what\u2019s happening with climate change and the environment. Sign up for our fortnightly Environment newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/b586cc87104558b2d9d236926e4cad4c795081ba26c24c5493c744b152840187.jpeg\")
The juvenile humpback whale has been spotted multiple times off Australia\u2019s east coast.Graeme Burgan<\/p>\n![\"Orcas](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/fe0b754dc2b42e8caac837e2f5831c48cf1eb405.jpeg\")
Orcas off Sydney\u2019s northern beaches. The species is known to prey upon juvenile humpback whales.Whale Watching Sydney<\/p>\n![\"Shark](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/928e8748a775d4cbe22e8a65d8686a0a338f29ef46f3c2ec3e7a21a26362496a.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Bianca](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/853f241356cf997976052905dc14366e4f262b35.png\")
Bianca Hall<\/a> is The Age’s environment and climate reporter, and has worked in a range of roles including as a senior writer, city editor, and in the federal politics bureau in Canberra.Connect via X<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"February 17, 2026 \u2014 3:42pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-485263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}