WATCH: Desperate attempt to free humpback whale caught in fishing net

WARNING - DISTRESSING CONTENT: A fisherman has revealed video of his desperate attempt to free a humpback whale trapped in a fishing net.

Julian Husseini was part of a group which charted a fishing boat from Muscat, Oman, last month in a quest to catch tuna.

But the men, including Husseini's brother Edmond, met a distressing scene on their first day out on the water.

The United Arab Emirates residents spotted something floating in the distance and on closer inspection realised it was a humpback whale entangled in a commercial fishing net.

"We reach it’s side and the whale makes a slight movement and sprays her blowhole," Julian Husseini wrote on Instagram of the encounter at the start of November.

They were quick to notice the whale's deteriorated state and made a frantic attempt to save the giant mammal.

"It’s blatant that she’s been stuck for a few days, if not weeks, full of cuts and out of energy," he wrote.

"We spent the next few hours cutting away at the net and managed, with just the 2 small knives we had, to free her head and body."

But despite their best efforts, they weren't able to fully clear the nets of the whale as the conditions became too difficult.

Husseini said the whale was visibly distressed which left the fishermen struggling in their effort to free it, with their fingers becoming trapped in the net as it repeatedly dipped underwater.

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Husseini predicted it wouldn't "end well" for the whale.

"We did all we could given the equipment we had onboard but sadly the net is still completely around her tail, and chances are she probably won’t make it much longer without more help," he wrote.

The group now want to use the video as a warning to the effects commercial fishing is having on the whale population, with under 100 Arabian Sea humpback whales predicted to be left in the Gulf of Oman, they claimed.