Volunteers with the South African Whale Disentanglement Network managed to successfully free three whales entangled in fishing ropes off the Western Cape coast this week.
SAWDN said that the first call-out was on Thursday off-shore of Dassen Island near Yzerfontein on the West Coast.
Spokesperson, Craig Lambinon, said that the humpback whale was located eight nautical miles southwest of Dassen Island entangled in four ropes wrapped around its right flipper.
He said specialised cutting equipment was used and the rope around the body was cut first in a difficult operation, with all the rope and floatation buoys recovered.
"The whale showed strong movement in the water and SAWDN was satisfied that this operation had been successful", Lambinon said.
He said SAWDN members responded to two more whale entanglements on Friday, one, off Dassen Island again and another operation off-shore of Oudekraal on Cape Town's Atlantic Seaboard.
(Pic: Supplied)
