Two humpback whales, a mother and her calf, were entangled in a shark net off Queensland’s Rainbow Beach on Saturday, prompting urgent calls to rescue officials from members of the public.

The state’s Department of Primary Industries (DPI) said it heard reports of the entanglements just before 6am and members with the agency’s shark control program and marine animal release team (MART) were on the scene at Rainbow Beach, about 245km north of Brisbane, around 10.30am to start work on freeing the animals.

Pauline Jacob, the deputy director for general fisheries and forestry for the DPI, said rescue work was still ongoing on Saturday afternoon.

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Jacob urged the public to call in experts during any incident involving wildlife stuck in shark netting but to avo

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