'Tinny Man' to donate whale fine funds

The 'hero in a tinny' who freed a whale calf from shark nets off the Gold Coast will donate money raised for his fines or legal defence to conservation group Sea Shepherd.

The man, who calls himself Django, was facing fines of up to $26,900 for interfering with shark control nets when he freed the stricken animal last month, after officials took more than two hours to respond.

"I saw the whale and I thought, 'That is pretty cool'. Then I saw he was in the net and I thought, 'That is not cool'," he told reporters at the time.

He took off his shirt and donned swimming fins before diving into the water and freeing the baby whale's pectoral fin from the net.

The community labelled him a 'hero', and flocked to donate to a GoFundMe set up to pay for the fine or his legal defence.

But, as it was his first offence, 'Django' was instead issued with two formal warning notices for entering the exclusion zone around the shark nets off Burleigh Heads and interfering with them.

'Django' will donate the $16,000 raised to Sea Shepherd Australia.