A whale was caught in shark nets for hours off the Gold Coast on Sunday, struggling to free itself before being untangled by rescuers.

The light-coloured minke whale was thrashing about just metres below the surface but was able to breathe during the ordeal, about noon.

Queensland's Marine Animal Release Team said it had unpicked the net by 2:30pm.

"The nine-metre whale was breathing and calm as it was being released and swam away strongly afterwards," a spokesperson said in a statement.

"More than 33,000 whales pass along our coast every year and entanglements in shark nets are rare events.

"This is only the third such instance this year."

Mark Saul from the Queensland Fisheries and Boating Patrol said it was a textbook rescue.

"The whale was very cooperative and it was fairly calm," he said.

"It was sitting up near the surface so it could breathe easily. That was good because it gave us time to formulate a plan and then slowly enact it."

He said the whale was uninjured but had a lot of sea lice on it, "which gave it a very light colouration".

"Apparently, the sea lice eat a lot of dead skin. But I couldn't see any major injuries on the animal at all," he said.

A six-to-nine-metre humpback had to be cut free in waters off Broadbeach on June 27.

And four days ago ropes and buoys were cut from the tail of a humpback off South Stradbroke Island.