Cape Town - Struggling to come up for air, a trapped juvenile Southern Right whale was rescued after people reported seeing it in distress on Saturday afternoon.
Volunteers from the South African Whale Disentanglement Network and the National Sea Rescue Institute found the whale entangled in the ropes of a whelk trap about 600m off St James Beach in False Bay.
The whale was estimated to be about one year old.
An assessment found five ropes entangled from the whale’s tail to its head.
The ropes had trapped it and left it with no room for movement, severely hindering its ability to rise to the surface and catch its breath, Dave Hurwitz, of the South African Whale Disentanglement Network, said.
Rescuers found lacerations on the lip and tail of the whale and rope marks around the body.
One rope was cut and this enabled the whale to rotate its body.
After a second rope was cut, the whale swam free.
The volunteers continued to monitor the whale for a while and reported seeing it healthy and swimming along strongly.
Later that afternoon, witnesses reported seeing a juvenile Southern Right whale swimming in the area in the vicinity of Murdoch Valley.
The volunteers were confident that this was the whale they had freed. - Cape Times