A HUMPBACK whale calf has been freed after becoming badly entangled in a shark net off the Hunter coastline.
The calf was spotted off the pier at Catherine Hill Bay earlier this morning. It is understood the mother was nearby and trying to help her baby.
Crews from National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) Disentanglement Team launched a boat at about 12:30pm from a neighbouring ramp to help the calf.
A spokeswoman from the Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia (ORRCA) said a team from NSW Department of Primary Industries had been awaiting support at the scene.
"This is a very specialist task and the NPWS team have had a lot of training," the spokeswoman said earlier on Thursday. "They will be able to assess the situation.
"The team need to be [careful]. They are trying to disentangle a young, wild animal the size of a car with a mother the size of a bus nearby," the spokeswoman said.
By 2:15pm, the team had removed the calf from the shark net ropes.
The spokeswoman said the baby had some "minor scratches" but was spotted swimming freely with its mother following release.
"The pair continued heading south," the spokeswoman said.
Lake Macquarie is a hotspot for whale entanglement - 88 per cent of animals caught in the regions shark nets during the 2022-23 season were non-target species. Of those caught, 66 per cent were killed.
And calm weather has been bringing whales closer to shore this year than usual, making for more sightings but a higher risk of entanglement.
An exclusion zone of 200 metres applies to whales calves in NSW waters, including for surfers and swimmers. You can not go any closer than 30 metres to an adult whale if you are swimming and boats must not go within 300 metres.
It is now peak season for southern whale migration, where humpbacks return from near Cairns and further north in the Pacific, back towards Antarctica for the warm months.
ORRCA will hold a southern migration census day this Sunday June 28, which helps understand whale behaviour.
"We encourage people to record whale spottings anytime from sunrise to sunset on Sunday and sent [them to us]," the spokeswoman said.
