A juvenile Humpback whale has been successfully disentangled from fishing rope and flotation buoys in a challenging disentanglement operation off the West Coast on Tuesday, 17 June.

NSRI crews from Lamberts Bay, St Helena Bay and Yzerfontein were alerted by the SA Whale Disentanglement Network after they received calls from a fishing vessel about the whale in distress north of Elands Bay.

On arrival in the area where the whale had been spotted, a search commenced, and the 8-meter juvenile Humpback was located, found to have multiple wraps of fishing rope entangled around its body, while also dragging flotation buoys.

The whale appeared to be tired and lethargic, most likely from being entangled for quite some time.

A kegging buoy and an extra flotation buoy were attached to the tangled fishing rope to help the whale float more easily and restrict its movement as a precaution, since it was already moving very little.

According to team leader Johan Liebetrau from NSRI Yzerfontein, it was clear that multiple cuts would be needed due to the many layers of rope wrapped around the whale.

NSRI coxswain Gerhard Visagie carefully brought the rescue craft alongside the whale while the crew began cutting the rope, taking great care to avoid injuring the whale or putting themselves at risk.

The team followed the whale, making cuts using special tools as needed. The whale seemed to cooperate during the process.

In total, eight cuts were made, and all the rope and buoys were successfully removed and recovered by SAWDN and the Department of Environment.

Once freed, the young humpback swam off confidently and quickly, showing no signs of distress.

The NSRI has commended the Purse Seiner fishing crew for raising the alarm and for getting accurate coordinates to SAWDN.

On Saturday, 6 June, another juvenile Humpback was successfully freed off Kidd’s Beach, about 15 nautical miles from East London.

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