By Caryn Dolley and Devin Hermanus
After a second close encounter with a whale in just four months, a fishing vessel and its crew were towed into Hout Bay harbour on Wednesday after it began taking on water.
Still a bit shaken from the ordeal, considered rare, the ship's captain Christiaan Smith said it had not been the first time his ship had encountered a whale, the last being in April in Saldanha Bay when a whale lifted the ship out the water.
"The first time I was scared, but I was calm today."
He said he and his crew had "felt and seen" the ship hit the whale.
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"I thought the boat was going to sink."
Brad Geyser, station commander of the National Sea Rescue Institute in Hout Bay, said the 12-metre fishing trawler, Tamara, with five people on board, had collided with the whale off Scarborough.
"There's quite a big hole in the vessel and it took on water fast," he said.
The whale swam off.
Rescuers searched for the whale and spotted it off Kommetjie.
Geyser said the Metro Red Cross Air Mercy Service helicopter had rushed out to the vessel and had dropped a pump on deck.
At the same time, two other vessels, the Penjamin and the Hiram, started towing the stricken trawler.
Two NSRI boats had also rushed out in case more help was needed.
Speaking while flying in a rescue helicopter above Kommetjie, Ian Klopper, the NSRI's helicopter rescue co-ordinator, said the whale was spotted "swimming nicely".
"It's a Southern Right whale that seems to be in good health. We haven't determined her age yet," he said.
Klopper said he had heard of similar incidents, but in 25 years had not been involved in such a rescue.
Nan Rice, chairperson of the SA Whale Disentanglement Unit's executive committee, said two incidents of trawlers bumping into whales were reported last year.
"Whales sometimes rest just below the surface and people on the vessels don't see them and they get bumped. It's an accident. It's not just with trawlers that this happens, it's also with smaller vessels like ski boats.
"The whale can get injured or even killed, but they're very powerful. They can lift a vessel out of the water. I heard there was a hole in the vessel. The whale might be hurt, but it will depend on where it was hit," Rice said.
She warned that people should stay at least 300 metres from whales.
"If the whale comes closer, they should move away."
Smith said he wasn't scared to venture out again because he "was a fisherman and must go out to sea".
In another sea rescue involving an animal on Wednesday, a dog, a German short-haired pointer, was steered back to shore by a jet skier after witnesses feared it would be washed out to sea at Doodles Beach in Table View.
NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon said a small crayfish boat with four people aboard had to be towed to safety after it had engine trouble at Rocky Banks at the False Bay mouth.
caryn.dolley@inl.co.za
devin.hermanus@inl.co.za
- This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Times on August 07, 2008
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