Whale freed from netting off Gold Coast

A humpback whale has been freed from heavy netting off the Queensland coast, five hours after rescuers began their mission to help it.

Whale watchers spotted the creature in the Gold Coast bay on Saturday morning and rescue crews from Sea World were brought in to assist.

Their efforts were impeded by another larger humpback whale, which breached and rolled over, stopping the boat from drawing near.

Rescuers finally got close enough about 2.30pm to cut the nets, but Sea World director of marine sciences Trevor Long told the Seven Network a lot of damage appears to have been done to the whale's tail.

Sea World believes the whale had dragged the netting thousands of kilometres - all the way from Victoria - according to Nine News.