Whale rescued
by Admin on Aug.16, 2010, under Conservation, News
Cape Town - A whale that became entangled in a 40-metre nylon rope was freed on Saturday afternoon near Gordon’s Bay in a meticulously planned rescue operation.
Employees from the department of environmental affairs, with the support of the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), used sharp knives to cut free the one-year-old southern right whale, which presumably became entangled on Friday afternoon at Hangklip.
The crew of a boat in False Bay saw on Friday night how the whale was hitting the water with its tail and realised it was in distress and was probably tangled.
“But it was nearly dark and we decided to only go out the next morning,” said Mike Meyer, a spokesperson of the department for environmental affairs’ branch for oceans and coast, on Sunday evening.
“All along the coastline there are fish nets in which whales can become entangled. When a whale swims into a net, it starts turning round and round in an attempt to free itself. But that is actually the worst thing it can do because then it becomes more entangled.”
Infection
According to Meyer, a rope like that usually caught on the thin part of the tail, in front of the tail fin.
Often, as was also the case with this whale, there was a buoy attached to the rope. If an entangled whale was not helped, it could die eventually.
“The rope cuts into the animal’s flesh and it leads to infection.”
“The buoy keeps the animal on the surface of the ocean and prevents him from feeding and eating properly.”
“As this whale was helped within a day, he was not injured too badly,” Meyer added.
Officials from the branch asked the NSRI, tourist boats and other boats to look out for the whale on Saturday morning.
After they established that it was near Koeël Bay, NSRI volunteers took three members of the branch in NSRI boats to the whale.
Quick operation
They herded the whale to calmer waters in Gordon’s Bay.
They could then throw a kedge anchor on a rope toward him so that it could be fixed to the rope on his tail. Two buoys were tied to the rope so that the whale would remain on the surface.
Then they switched off the boat’s engines and carefully approached the whale. They pulled the rope toward them and carefully cut it off with sharp knives.
The rescue operation took about 30 minutes.