A large whale carcass was pulled from the waters of Cape Town harbour yesterday by City officials after the marine mammal was struck by a passing ship.
The dead whale was removed at the Oceana power boat club slipway. The entire back part of its body was missing.
“This was a humpback whale that was originally about 10m long,” Jacques du Toit of the environmental management branch in the City of Cape Town told News24.
“The propellers of a ship literally chopped off the back part of the whale just behind the dorsal fin. The parts we pulled out were about 7m long,” said Du Toit.
The environmental management branch says it removes 14 to 15 dead whales each year due to ship strikes, although some are also killed by getting tangled in nets or stranded.
Locals are already up in arms about these needless whale deaths, which are often a result of human activity. The community has even gone as far as creating a petition to have the octopus traps removed from the False Bay Area, which has already garnered thousands of signatures. You can find more information on the petition here.
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Pictures: The City of Cape Town
