South African Whale Disentanglement Network (SAWDN) volunteers have managed to successfully free a juvenile humpback whale entangled in rope and floatation buoys off-shore of Granger Bay, Cape Town, but there is some doubt whether it will survive.
The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) headquarters sea rescue craft Spirit of Round Table, while on stand-by off-shore of Camps Bay for the SA Surf Lifesaving Championships, was alerted just after noon on Friday by the crew of a fishing vessel reporting the entangled whale they had sighted off-shore of Granger Bay, SAWDN spokesman Craig Lambinon said.
The sea rescue craft was diverted to investigate and the NSRI found the whale a few hundred metres off-shore. The SAWDN volunteers were activated and the NSRI Table Bay sea rescue craft Spirit of Day was launched accompanied by SAWDN members.
On arrival on the scene the whale was found to be weak and appearing to be tired and drifting into the kelp bed along the Granger Bay shoreline. Steve McCue of the department of environmental affairs – oceans and coasts and of the SAWDN suggested the whale be towed to deeper water and the NSRI Table Bay sea rescue craft Spirit of Vodacom was launched to assist in the operation, he said.
“NSRI rescue swimmers swam a towline to the kelp bed where the towline was attached to the whale and after the towline broke free additional NSRI rescue swimmers swam ashore and approached from the shore side, attaching a towline to the whale and the whale was towed to deeper water while SAWDN members cut free the entangling rope and floatation buoys using the SAWDN specialised cutting equipment and releasing the rope and floatation buoys entangled around the whale’s flippers and tail.”
After all rope was cut free and recovered and the towline removed shortly after 4pm – with the whale now free of the entanglement and in deeper water – the SAWDN members remained on the scene encouraging the whale to swim. Although the whale appeared to gather strength and swam away the SAWDN members were only cautiously optimistic that the whale would survive, as it continued to appear weak, tired, and lethargic.
“The coastline will continue to be monitored over the next few days and SAWDN are appealing to boaters to be aware of this whale and to proceed cautiously to avoid the whale in the vicinity of the Granger Bay and Sea Point coastline,” Lambinon said.
– African News Agency (ANA)
