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Animal welfare experts are launching a fresh attempt to rescue an injured Minke whale caught in a trawler net off the west Wales coast.
It is believed the six-metre whale may have been tangled in the net for up to a week off the coast of New Quay, Ceredigion.
RSPCA inspectors tried in vain to rescue it when it was found on Monday. They were within a metre of the mammal, but were unable to free it. After a failed attempt to cut the whale free, a second rescue attempt will be made on Tuesday.
The whale was spotted by passengers on a pleasure boat, 250 metres off the shore.
They reported the sighting to coastguards at Milford Haven who alerted the RSPCA.
After a fruitless search involving a police helicopter, RSPCA inspector Richard Abbott and a team of whale experts on a boat finally found the injured juvenile whale around half a mile out at sea.
Net tangled
Inspector Abbott said the six-metre long whale has damaged areas of skin and may have been caught in the net for up to a week.
The net appears to be wound around the nose and left fin. The rescue team were able to approach to within a metre of the whale but could not cut it free.
They plan to try again on Tuesday afternoon and will take further equipment and divers.
Another whale - a pilot whale - was found stranded in rocks at Mill Bay on St Ann's Head over the weekend.
The whale was dead, and it is not yet clear whether the two strandings were are connected.
Coastguards, however, have said it would be unusual for two to be found in similar circumstances in such a short space of time.
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