Finding 'willy' for freeing is a problem

WHALE rescuers were scratching their heads again yesterday as an ensnared humpback played cat and mouse on the high seas.

An unconfirmed sighting of the stricken mammal off Korora yesterday morning did not bear fruit.

The 10-metre-long adult, trailing about 40 metres of shark line, an eight-inch foam float and a 20-litre white plastic drum, was first seen close to the harbour on Tuesday morning.

Rescuers came close later that day to freeing the whale from its binding near South Solitary Island but conditions foiled their bid.

On Wednesday, a spotter plane was flown as far north as Byron Bay in a bid to track it down.

Yesterday morning, a woman told ABC radio from Korora she'd spotted through her binoculars a whale 'acting unusually' and thought she could see white material behind it.