Cape Town - To the joy of nature lovers, the number of whales around the South African coast seems to be growing, but this very fact presents new problems for whale and human.
Apart from the inevitable danger of collisions between sea-going vessels of all sorts and whales, the animals are also prone to become entangled in ropes and lines from commercial fishing equipment, especially long-line fishing gear.
The South African Whale Disentanglement Network (SAWDN), an organisation started with the express purpose of freeing whales caught up in these ropes and lines, has been getting busier and busier, earlier than usual, this year.
This time of year marks the beginning of the whales’ natural migration to the north and many whales have been seen leaving Cape waters. A particularly large number of whales were spotted off Cape Point recently.
Since March 21, when a juvenile humpback whale was freed from rope fitted with floats near Dassen Island, volunteers of the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) and the SAWDN had to rush to the aid of three whales. It has been the earliest and busiest start yet to the Cape’s popular whale season for the specially trained volunteers, said Network head Mike Meyer.
On Friday, March 20, Network volunteers were called to help a juvenile humpback whale that was entangled near Dassen Island, but they could only get one rope off before running out of daylight. The next day, volunteers and colleagues from the NSRI again went out to the whale at about midday. It took the rescuers more than six hours, but eventually all rope and floatation buoys were removed and recovered successfully.
“The whale was feisty, mobile, and led the operation back and forth around Dassen Island while rope and floatation buoys were gradually removed using specialised whale disentanglement equipment. The whale appeared to be healthy and it seemed that the operation had been successful,” said spokesman Craig Lambinon.
On Wednesday July 1, about 8.23am, volunteers rushed to help a humpback whale that was caught in rope about one nautical mile off-shore of Hangklip, False Bay, between Gordon’s Bay and Hermanus.
An eight-metre, one-year-old, humpback whale was found to be entangled in rope and floatation buoys. At first it looked as if it had been entangled three times, with one rope around each of the flukes and one around the animal’s so-called cordal peduncle, the narrow part of the animal’s body ahead of the tail.
The rescuers had to attach larger flotation buoys to the animal to prevent it from diving to escape them, before they could start cutting at the ropes around its body with specially designed cutters on long poles.
This Wednesday at about 9.23am, volunteers again raced out to a spot about one nautical mile off Olifantsbospunt, Cape Point, following reports of a 15 metre adult Humpback whale entangled in rope and buoys.
It turned out the whale was caught up in the rope of fishing gear being used by scientists aboard the fisheries research vessel Ellen Khuzwayo to research rock lobster.
The whale was found to be tired with some damage to its tail stock.
Meyer appealed to people not to try to disentangle a whale on their own. “These guys are big. They might not intend to hit you, but when they do, they do damage,” he said.
Cape Argus