Brydes Whale

Overview

In August 1994, Sea World joined the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service in a three-month operation to help a 10-tonne Brydes whale trapped in the Manning River near Taree.

The whale swam as far as 20 km upstream, but was unable to negotiate its way out of the maze of sandbanks and the treacherous bar at the mouth of the river.

After three months in the river, with the whale losing condition from lack of food, Sea World developed a revolutionary floating pontoon to tow the whale across the bar.

When the whale stranded on a sandbank at the mouth of the river, the Sea World team immediately moved into action, positioning the whale on the pontoon then towing it across the bar and two kilometres out to sea where it was finally released.