By Caryn Dolley
She was "quite distraught" and thrashed around, apparently too terrified to accept the help being offered - the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) eventually had to load her on to a boat and give her a ride to safety.
But this was no ordinary rescue. It took the NSRI and CapeNature more than three hours to free the "very rare" 200kg pygmy sperm whale which got stranded at Stilbaai.
The mission is making waves in marine circles, with scientists from as far as New York contacting the Stilbaai NSRI to find out more.
On Tuesday, Enrico Menezies, Stilbaai NSRI station commander and CapeNature member, said he heard on Monday a whale was stranded at Stilbaai's main beach.
Continues Below ↓
"When we got there, she was quite distraught and had injuries on her face. We tried to settle her down. Another person and I then tried to swim her out. But she was too scared to go over a sand bank and turned back and beached again."
Menezies said they decided to load her on to a boat and it took eight rescuers to lift the three-metre-long, 200kg whale.
"We went about 600m off-shore and rolled her out. We stayed there for about an hour until it got dark." Menezies said the whale seemed to be in good health when released.
He said rescuers on Tuesday checked the shore in case she had washed up again, but by afternoon there was no sign of her.
-
This article was originally published on page 7 of Cape Times on January 21, 2009
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
