Authorities have euthanased a small juvenile humpback whale after it washed ashore on a Port Macquarie beach on the NSW Mid North Coast.
The juvenile whale, believed to be around one week old, initially became wedged among the rocks on Oxley Beach this morning after it was separated from its mother.
Abbey Woodbridge was walking along a local coastal track with a friend when she saw it at around 9:15am and notified authorities.
“I saw the whale about 100 metres offshore and then it came in closer and closer. We came up to look at it and see how far it had come in,” she said.
Maria Ledgerwood was with Ms Woodbridge and said it was an upsetting situation.
“The poor thing is getting more stressed against the rocks and getting battered around so badly,” she said.
“We were really close to the whale before and I could see its eyes and it was a little bit heart breaking. I had to move away.”
Rescue attempts
Members from the Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia (ORRCA) were at the site, as well as police, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Surf Life Saving members and local council staff.
ORRCA vice president Jools Farrell said the whale was initially caught in a very difficult position and was hard to access when crews arrived.
“It’s a very challenging situation,” she said.
“It’s in rocks which is making it even more challenging, especially for the people who are assessing it.”
Rescue teams worked to remove the whale from the dangerous reef and swell, before a marine vet assessed its health.
“It was in poor condition and it’s likely to have been unwell for a few days,” Nationals Parks and Wildlife Service area manager Shane Robinson said.
“At that stage of its life it’s completely dependent on its mother … we did a search of the area with our drone and there was no mother visible in the nearby vicinity,” he said.
Mr Robinson said the most humane thing to do was euthanase the whale because “it just wouldn’t survive on its own”.
It is estimated the whale was around 4.2 metres long and weighed around two tonnes.
