Volunteers of the SA Whale Disentanglement Network (SAWDN) rescued a large humpback whale that was entangled in a fishing rope that appeared to be anchored to the sea bed off-shore South West of Dassen Island.
According to SAWDN duty coordinator, Marc de la Porte, on arrival on the scene at 10:00 am, an 11-meter Humpback whale was found entangled in fishing rope and 2 floatation buoys with the fishing rope anchored to the seabed.
“The whale had good movement and was able to surface for air at will but appeared to be unsettled, 4 wraps of rope were found with 2 of the wraps of rope around the tail and a wrap of rope around the body.
“SAWDN crew attached 2 kegging buoys to the rope wraps in an effort to assist to keep the whale as close to the sea surface as possible but the whale shrugged the kegging buoys off with a thrash from its tail. A trailing line from the kegging buoys remained in place, trailing from the rope wrapped around the whales tail,” De la Porte said.
De la Porte went on to say that crew members used specialised cutting equipment to make the first cut, a double cut and then released the wrap of rope around the body that freed the whale from the entrapment to the seabed anchor.
“The whale was now swimming freely and appeared to be less unsettled and picking up speed quickly,” De la Porte explained.
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Picture: NSRI