Whales to be tracked off WA coast

Tracking whales off the WA coast is nearly impossible but new technology developed in Perth is removing the guess work.

Marine Park Coordinator Melissa Evans and her team work to help rescue the animals once they become entangled.

“The benefit of having the tracking device if where losing light bad weather or the animal is too restless to be approached properly then we can get a tracker onto it,” she said.

35,000 whales are currently migrating north to warmer breeding grounds and some will become stuck in fishing gear.

“It's a 40 tonne animal quite often they are unhappy they don’t know you're there to help them,” she said.

WA's Rock Lobster industry is the biggest in the country so the coast is dotted with netting and ropes.

The Western Rock Lobster has chipped in $20,000 to roll out ten GPS buoys from Esperance to Broome.

They'll be monitored by specialist disentanglement teams from the Fisheries Department.

A prototype was used 12 months ago when a humpback became entangled in low light.

It was tracked for two days before wild life officers safely cut it free.

In five years the number of entangled whales off WA has dropped from 17 to 6.