A humpback whale that became entangled in a fishing net for more than four hours off Tasmania's south-east coast is swimming freely again.
A fisherman called authorities after the adult whale became caught in one of his nets while fishing off Nubeena on Thursday morning.
He stayed with the animal until a recovery team from the Department of Parks and Wildlife arrived.
Marine biologist Rachael Alderman said the team found the whale exhausted.
"The act of becoming entangled in the first place caused it to thrash around," she said.
"It was dragging some heavy gear, so when we found it it was lying relatively still in the water, and wasn't trying to get away or moving around too much."
The team attached floatation devices to the netting to slow the whale down before cutting it free.
"Everything was well lined up in this particular scenario, we had favourable weather, we had a timely report and we had a fisher on site who was able to guide us straight there."
Ms Alderman said as soon as it was freed the humpback took off and was last seen swimming away from Shipstern Bluff.
