{"id":763594,"date":"2026-06-27T11:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T11:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/763594\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T11:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T11:21:10","slug":"satellite-tracker-monitors-humpback-whale-entangled-in-rope-and-buoys-off-sydney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/763594\/","title":{"rendered":"Satellite tracker monitors humpback whale entangled in rope and buoys off Sydney"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wildlife rescue teams are tracking an entangled humpback whale near Sydney, one of eight currently entangled off the New South Wales coast.<\/p>\n

The whale, an estimated eight metres in length, was spotted on Saturday afternoon about three kilometres off South Head entangled in green rope and five white buoys.<\/p>\n

Volunteers from the Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans (ORRCA) were tracking the animal, along with a private whale-watching vessel.<\/p>\n

\"Entangled<\/p>\n

The humpback whale is entangled in green rope and five white buoys. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

A specialist disentanglement team with the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) approached the whale and attached a satellite tracker in the early evening.<\/p>\n

The whale has since travelled south past Cronulla Beach.<\/p>\n

A NPSW spokeswoman said if the tracker remained attached overnight, teams would resume the rescue operation on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“Disentanglement is highly skilled and dangerous, and crews will only attempt to do so if conditions are safe,” the spokeswoman said.Eight whale entanglements amid northern migration<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of humpback whales are passing along the coast as part of their annual northern migration.<\/p>\n

ORRCA spokeswoman Pip Jacobs said the organisation has been tracking another seven entangled whales off the coast.<\/p>\n

“We believe they may be off the far north coast of New South Wales now and heading into south-east Queensland,” she said.<\/p>\n

Whale rescuers prepare for entanglements <\/a><\/p>\n

As thousands of whales begin their annual northern migration up the east coast of Australia, teams of specialist rescuers are preparing to help them along the way.<\/p>\n

“So we urge anyone who sights an entangled whale to please call through to the ORRCA hotline so we attempt to get help to that animal.”<\/p>\n

Ms Jacobs said another two whales had been successfully disentangled in the past fortnight.<\/p>\n

She has urged untrained community members not to approach entangled whales.<\/p>\n

“It’s incredibly complex and incredibly dangerous and we implore anyone to not undertake this themselves,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Humpbacks weigh up to 40 tonnes and when they’re entangled [they] often exhibit a stress response, so they may be thrashing, they’re obviously quite distressed given the gear that they’re entangled in.”<\/p>\n

Whales face a range of threats from marine debris such as nets and ropes, often referred to as “ghost nets”.<\/p>\n

Ms Jacobs said the longer a whale was entangled, the worse its condition became, which could result in death from starvation, injuries, or other complications.<\/p>\n

Anyone who sees an entangled whale is urged to report its location, direction and speed to NPWS on 1300 072 757 or the ORRCA Rescue Hotline on 02 9415 3333.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wildlife rescue teams are tracking an entangled humpback whale near Sydney, one of eight currently entangled off the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":763595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,33253,33252,84102,364136,364137,146385,11698,128,364138,338],"class_list":["post-763594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entangled-whale","tag-humpback-whale","tag-marine-wildlife","tag-nsw-national-parks","tag-nsw-whale-disentanglement-team","tag-organisation-for-the-rescue-and-research-of-cetaceans-in-australia","tag-orrca","tag-science","tag-south-head","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763594","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=763594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}