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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Environment
Royce Kurmelovs

The kindest cut: the Australians fighting to save humpback whales tangled in fishing nets

Australia Wayne Phillips Olaf Meynecke
A fishing net caught on the tail of a whale
A fishing net caught on the tail of a whale. ‘It’s like a ball and a chain …. a slow death for the animals,’ Wayne Phillips says. Photograph: Todd Burrows

Wayne Phillips has both feet firmly on dry land as he acts out cutting a whale loose from fishing gear.

The 51-year-old head of marine sciences at SeaWorld in Queensland oversees the park’s marine rescue team – four cutters, a coordinator, a captain and a videographer – who untangle humpback whales that have become bound up in rope and net.

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