Whale’s mouth entangled in 500-foot rope. It needed ‘complex’ rescue, video shows

A humpback whale entangled in a long rope — stretching more than the length of a football field — was recently rescued off the coast of Australia.

The marine mammal, a roughly 35-foot juvenile, was first spotted near Sydney on June 22, according to a news release from the Organization for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia (ORRCA).

Its mouth, body and left fin were wrapped in a rope that trailed behind the creature for about 490 feet, with its end dotted by white buoys.

Video footage shows the behemoth sea creature breaching the ocean surface with the line clearly visible across its body.

The animal was seen swimming alone near the shore and moving in an “erratic” fashion.

“Based on observation data of this entangled whale the ORRCA team is unable to accurately estimate where this whale will be now,” the organization said.

But, good news came just hours later.

On June 23, the animal was once again located off Killcare, a suburb north of Sydney, and rescuers took quick action, delivering “a fantastic response.”

“The (National Parks and Wildlife Service) Large Whale Disentanglement Team successfully removed the vast majority of rope this afternoon from the whale in an extremely complex disentanglement,” the organization said.

Unfortunately, though, this was not a rare occurrence.

“Each year, countless whales and other marine animals become entangled in discarded or lost fishing gear — also known as ghost gear,” according to Sea Shepherd Australia, a marine conservation nonprofit. “This silent killer drifts through our ocean, wrapping around fins, flippers and throats, often with devastating consequences.”

An estimated 300,000 cetaceans — including whales and dolphins — die every year as a result of entanglements in fishing gear, according to the Marine Mammal Center, a nonprofit.

This gear is ubiquitous as, every year, about 640,000 tons is released into the ocean, making up about 10% marine debris, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Humpbacks, which are found throughout all the world’s oceans, also face other threats, including from vessel strikes and ocean noise, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This story was originally published June 25, 2025 at 12:49 PM with the headline "Whale’s mouth entangled in 500-foot rope. It needed ‘complex’ rescue, video shows."