Add CategoryTHE National Parks and Wildlife Service has called off the rescue of a humpback whale entangled in rope off North Bondi until first light on Wednesday.
A NPWS boat is monitoring the 10m whale to assess the direction and speed it is swimming to help estimate how far further north it might be in the morning.
A Parks and Wildlife spokesman said it was not safe to attempt to untangle the mammal at night.
“NPWS is mobilising specialist crews with a view to attempting disentanglement first thing tomorrow,” he said.
The Channel 7 helicopter is also closely marking the whale, located about two nautical miles off the coast, so it can be located by rescue services.
Whale Watching Sydney’s Jonas Liebschner earlier said staff was making a valiant effort to free the humpback despite their lack of specialist equipment.
“It will be dark in a couple of hours and if you lose the whale to darkness you won’t find it again and it could die,” Mr Liebschner says.
“Hopefully this is a hero story in the making.
“The boys will do what they can.”
The exhausted and frantic whale is tangled in a rope attached to a large fishing trap.
Mr Liebschner and his crew members stumbled upon the stricken whale about 2pm on Tuesday used makeshift gear for their precarious rescue attempt.
“They have boat hooks with which we could grab a line but they’re not usually used for disentangling a whale which may panic and fight you,” Mr Liebschner says
“They may have a knife or two on the boat and some duct tape and a stick to try to make do to cut the whale free.”