What to do when there’s a marine wildlife stranding
Issued: 20 Aug 2024

Dubbed the 'humpback highway' from June to November, the warmer waters of our Queensland marine parks welcome an estimated 40,000+ humpback whales. Humpback whales make their incredible annual migration north to breed and give birth, before returning to the southern Antarctic waters for the summer months to feed. Back from the brink of near extinction in the 1980s, it's great news that the species’ numbers are continuing to steadily increase in Queensland waters every year, but unfortunately this means we’ll likely see more whale strandings on our shores.

What is a marine wildlife stranding?

Strandings can occur anywhere along the Queensland coastline and can happen for many different reasons such as misadventure, poor health and injury. This can include whales suffering from natural diseases or calves being separated from their mothers and not being able to survive without them. If you’re a beach lover like the rest of us, you may come across a stranded marine animal either on the beach or in the water, showing signs of distress, illness or sadly in some cases they're no longer alive.

Whatever the situation, it’s important that you stay away from the animal and refrain from touching it—for your safety and the wellbeing of the animal. If alive, it’s going to be in distress and while you may want to help, it’s important to stay clear and be as calm as possible to not cause any further harm. Safety must come first. Deceased whales can carry zoonotic diseases and if stranded in shallow water, sharks may be present. That’s why we need people to keep their distance from dead whales that wash up onshore and instead contact the Wildlife Hotline on 1300 130 372 to notify the department.

“In the lead up to the whale season, our Ranger teams from Moreton Bay and Great Sandy marine parks, as well as our Wildlife Officers and SeaWorld staff, came together to refresh our skills in responding to live whale strandings.”

“We ran through several different scenarios that we may encounter, including assigning roles to individual teams in each incident response scenario and implementing safe work practices to carry out a hypothetical rescue and/or retrieval of a stranded whale.”

“A dummy whale was used to practice safely attaching the rescue and recovery equipment for retrieval, and all the assigned teams maintained a strong focus on their individual safety throughout the day.”

“This included being careful to not stand too closely to the body of the whale to avoid being crushed from a roll over, steering clear of the whale’s fluke and flippers to evade the risk of being hit and injured, and avoiding breathing in any zoonotic disease carrying air from the blow-hole.”

“We all have an important role as part of the response team—assessing, stabilising and ideally being able to return the stranded marine wildlife to their natural habitat.”

“This training is an important part of the teams' pre-season preparedness, which also includes working with commercial operators and other stakeholders. We also issue a Notice to Mariners and marine radio broadcasts as well as completing stranding equipment inventories so we are ready to go if or when the call comes through,” Ranger Nat said.

What can you do to help?

The best thing you can do, for your safety and the animal’s wellbeing, is to immediately report a stranded marine mammal or turtle, with accurate location, to the department by calling the Wildlife Hotline on 1300 130 372.

Providing information like an estimated size of the animal (comparing to a size of a common object) and if possible, photographs, which can really assist in identifying the species, its size and type of damage as well as how many people may be required to assist.

Remember to keep your distance so our teams of highly trained experts can attend and assist.

And if you’re out and about on the water, keep a look out for our marvellous marine creatures and always observe the limits on approach distances and speed.

Remember, if you see a marine stranding or witness a vessel collision with a marine animal to report it immediately to the Wildlife Hotline on 1300 130 372.