East London: Juvenile Humpback Whale Successfully Released

On Saturday, 7 June, BCMM (Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality) Aquarium arranged a local fixed wing aircraft (airborne on a flight) to scan the coastline in an effort to spot a Humpback whale trailing a large flotation buoy that had been reported to NSRI on Friday afternoon.

The whale had last been spotted offshore of Haga Haga, Eastern Cape, heading in the direction of East London.

NSRI East London, NSRI Port Alfred and NSRI Gqeberha had all been placed on alert.

On Saturday following a search the aircraft pilot reported spotting the whale offshore of Gulu.

An NSRI East London team prepared to respond to the scene accompanied by NSRI/SAWDN trained crew.

BCMM Aquarium and the aircraft crew have been commended for their assistance.

At 07h55, Saturday, 7 June, the NSRI East London rescue craft Spirit of DHL, accompanied by trained NSRI/SAWDN volunteers, responded towards the scene and following a brief search finding the whale, a juvenile Humpback whale, approximately 7 to 8 meters, about 1.5 nm to 2 nm (nautical miles) offshore of Kidds Beach – about 15 nautical miles from East London.

The whale was found to have fishing rope wrapped around the caudal peduncle (the tail) and trailing a large flotation buoy, moving reasonably freely but slowly, entangled in the fishing rope.

An NSRI East London rescue vehicle dispatched along the shoreline assisted with marine VHF radio communications and assisted by NSRI EOC (Emergency Operations Centre).

The whale appeared tired and lethargic – most likely caused by trailing the large flotation buoy for some time. Indications are that this whale has been entangled in the fishing rope and gear for a long time.

Using the SAWDN specialised cutting equipment and with the NSRI rescue craft gently approaching the whale the NSRI/SAWDN volunteers initiated cutting wraps of fishing rope from around the caudal peduncle.

The whale occasionally dived, said NSRI coxswain Geoff McGregor. At the first cut it seemed to our crew onboard our rescue craft that the whale realised that we were there to help.

Although the whale did give us a bit of the run around the whale seemed to settle, despite diving below the surface occasionally, to offer us longer windows of opportunity to get stuck in to make the cuts to the entangled fishing rope.

A total of 4 cuts were made to the fishing rope, using the pole with the hook knife attached (specialised cutting equipment), and after the 4 cuts, made over a period of time at intervals, all rope was successfully cut free and the whale.

Unfortunately, as is common in these challenging operations, one of the poles with the hook knife was ripped out of the hands of one of our NSRI/SAWDN crewmen while making a cut as the whale dived and was sadly was lost to the sea. An unfortunate loss as they are expensive pieces of equipment.

Once freed of all of the entangled fishing rope the whale dived under the sea surface and although we waited around for quite some time the whale did not surface again for a while.

We collected all of the fishing rope, gear and the flotation buoy for disposal. It appears, from the details on the fishing rope, fishing gear and flotation buoy, that the fishing equipment belongs to a foreign fishing vessel that is currently showing up on AIS to be offshore of South America.

Then, as we were preparing to leave the scene, said Geoff, the whale surfaced some distance away from us letting out a spout of air. We returned to the whale – just to double check that we had freed the whale of all of the fishing rope and gear – the whale swam around a bit, letting off a another spout of air and then disappeared under the water again. We departed the scene and returned to base.

When we left the whale was swimming freely and confidently.

SAWDN and maritime authorities are again appealing to the public and to the maritime community not to try to free a whale from an entanglement. Our greatest fear, during Friday night, was that local mariners may try to free the whale – but if the trailing flotation buoy had been cut free of the whale we fear that we may not have found the whale on Saturday.

These disentanglement operations are dangerous and NSRI, in cooperation with SAWDN, go through lengthy training exercises to enable us to successfully conduct these challenging operations safely with the goal in mind to save the animal.