Home » Free Willy: Southern Right Whale Successfully Disentangled Near Fish Hoek, South Africa

Free Willy: Southern Right Whale Successfully Disentangled Near Fish Hoek, South Africa

The NSRI Simon’s Town sea rescue crew successfully disentangled a Southern Right whale that had become entangled in rope off-shore of Clovelly, between Kalk Bay and Fish Hoek, on Tuesday evening. Photographer ROB TARR was there to capture the action… “I scooted around there this evening and managed to find parking among the gazillion onlookers! […]

By SAPeople
23-08-17 19:58
in Fab South African Stuff

The NSRI Simon’s Town sea rescue crew successfully disentangled a Southern Right whale that had become entangled in rope off-shore of Clovelly, between Kalk Bay and Fish Hoek, on Tuesday evening. Photographer ROB TARR was there to capture the action…

Dangerous work – a Canadian whale disentanglement expert was killed by a blow from the tail of a whale recently…

“I scooted around there this evening and managed to find parking among the gazillion onlookers!

“Fantastic to have a grandstand view of the whale disentanglement team doing their thing – using a specialized cutting tool to make only 5 cuts in the fishing gear ropes that resulted in freeing the whale.

Early in the process, the full extent of the problem can be seen – with a number of wraps of rope around the tail… Here, the boat approaches carefully, and the cutting tool is at the ready…

“It was really distressing, though, watching the whale struggling to the surface and hearing the laboured, loud breaths of air, and watching the tail thrashing around with strands of rope entangled …

“But once it was freed, it simply submerged and disappeared – clearly it had had enough of the place and was happy to head out into the bay…

“So it was a happy ending to the tale – and huge congrats for this are due to the whale disentanglement team and NSRI for their time, skills and dedication.”

Its a skilled process – studying the ropes and deciding in what sequence to cut the ropes …

Darren Zimmerman, NSRI Simon’s Town station commander, said the crew had been activated following eye-witness reports of the entangled whale. Darren was on board the rescue craft which also had SAWDN (South African Whale Disentanglement Network) cutting equipment.

Cape Town Traffic Services were also enlisted on land to assist with crowd control and alleviate the bottle neck on the roadway, caused by concerned onlookers.

Southern right whales have a reputation of being aggressive sometimes during disentanglement, but this one fortunately appeared fairly calm (or tired?)

Darren said: “We arrived swiftly on the scene first and we found a large Southern Right whale, 10 to 12 meters in length, entangled with at least 8 wraps of rope around its tail.

“The whale appeared to be healthy and it was very active.”

After releasing the whale, the crew then investigated additional Southern Right whales that were in the area… and luckily no further entanglements were identified.

For me, this image epitomizes the tragedy of the rope-entangled whale. Normally the sight of a whale’s tail splashing in the bay brings happiness – but in this case it was a dramatic illustration of the helplessness of a whale once it is wrapped in nylon ropes…

NSRI commended the many concerned members of the public who raised the alarm and we are thankful to Cape Town Traffic Services for their assistance with traffic control on Main Road, Clovelly, and for the assistance of local radio news stations for alerting peak hour traffic users to avoid Main Road, Clovelly, and to seek alternative routes home during the incident.

The operation was successfully completed at 17h47.

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View more photos at Rob Tarr Photography