A spokesman for the service, John Dengate, said the calf, thought to be two- to three-weeks old, would be killed by lethal injection this morning after it was decided it was too dangerous to enter the water after dark.

"They'll give it an overdose of anaesthetic," he said last night.

"The last thing we want is that the whale should suffer. The vets are saying 'he hasn't got long to go - you should take action'. It was too dangerous to do it last night so we'll have to relocate it in the morning. It's not impossible he will have passed away.

"The animal is suffering shark-inflicted injuries, is experiencing breathing difficulties and its flukes are hanging down."

An Aboriginal "whale whis-perer", Bunna Lawrie, who spent time with the whale yesterday, patting it and singing to it, was shocked to hear the decision.

"You're kidding, that's the wrong thing to do," said Mr Lawrie, who is the lead singer of the Aboriginal reggae band, Coloured Stone, and will appear in the coming film, Whale-dreamers. "While it's got life it's got hope. He heard me singing and came over. I looked at him and he was full of life. He had a few scratches and cuts on him and I was a bit worried about his eyes.

"All he needed is a mother's milk. There was hope another whale could pick him up and adopt him. He could have at least learnt to swim with them and eat krill and plankton."

The national parks service met experts from Taronga Zoo and Sea World on the Gold Coast, and the welfare groups RSPCA and ORCCA, yesterday to decide the whale's fate. Dr David Blyde, from Sea World, had flown to Sydney to inspect the calf, which had not eaten for at least six days.