SYDNEY, 17 September 2025 | Humane World for Animals Australia is responding to reports confirmed by the Department of Primary Industries that a mature humpback whale with calf was entangled in shark nets off Rainbow Beach, Queensland and has subsequently dragged a net approximately 100km north to Hervey Bay—the world's first Whale Heritage Site.
Local reports have logged the whale's current location as Platypus Bay, within Hervey Bay, near the township of Torquay.
Hervey Bay is a sanctuary and recognised as a refuge for humpback whales during their annual migration, as the animals head south for cooler water and feeding grounds in the Southern Ocean during the austral summer.
Humane World for Animals Australia marine biologist Lawrence Chlebeck said the event is a tragic reminder of the impact that Queensland's shark nets have on whales.
"This is yet another reminder of the annual toll that shark nets take on these highly intelligent and social animals," said Mr Chlebeck. "The tragic irony of this gentle giant and with a calf is floundering as it's entangled in a shark net in Hervey Bay – the world's first Whale Heritage Site – is simply unacceptable. Even if the whale can be freed from this net, the trauma they will have suffered and energy expended in the struggle, will seriously jeopardise their ability to make the long migration back to their feeding grounds in the Southern Ocean. How can the Queensland Government continue to justify their year-round deployment of these lethal, outdated and ineffective shark nets to the state's waters?"
Queensland's shark control program currently consists of 27 culling nets on beaches in southeast Queensland, and 383 lethal drumlines in use on beaches from the New South Wales border north to Cairns. Shark nets are not barriers, they are approximately 150 metre-long fishing nets installed 500 metres off ocean beaches year-round.
