A BABY humpback stranded on Surfers Paradise beach has been guided back out to sea, only to become entangled in a shark net.

Sea World officials, who were herding the mammal back to the open sea, managed to cut the 1500kg infant loose within 15 minutes.



It was the latest drama in an eventful 12 hours for the newborn.



The stricken animal washed ashore in the early hours of this morning, sparking a massive rescue effort.

After calling in excavation equipment, rescuers were able to dig a channel back out to the sea and slowly coaxed the calf into the water, to huge cheers from a crowd of several thousand onlookers about 10.30am.

Rescue boats from Sea World are escorting the whale just beyond the break zone while the search continues for it's mother.



Despite the initial success of the rescue operation, there are fears the animal may not survive unless it can be reunited with its mother.



The earth moving machinery arrived on the beach about 8.15am, several hours after the baby humpback was discovered lying exhausted on the Surfers Paradise sand.

Seaworld's director of marine sciences, Trevor Long, said the week-old calf would be monitored for the rest of the day to give it the best opportunity to reunite with its mother.



"It's not over yet. The whale has been lying on one pectoral fin all night," Mr Long said.



"He's very sore and not moving it much at all.



"The hope of this exercise is that he will now be able to communicate with his mother but we don't know where his mother is.



"However they can communicate for many tens of kilometres so if his mother is 20 or 30km away, she might be able to pick him up.



"He may come back to the beach. We've done everything we can at this stage but at some point in time we'll have to leave the animal and let nature take its course."