After a two-hour operation, SA Whale Disentanglement Network officials freed a 9-metre humpback whale that became entangled in fishing rope near Port Alfred in the Eastern Cape.

People aboard a passing container ship saw the whale caught in fishing rope lines and flotation buoys in the vicinity of Port Alfred and reported what they saw to the network on Sunday.

Fishing rope was strung through and around the whale’s mouth and it was attached to fishing gear, crayfish traps and flotation buoys.

In a sensitive and delicate operation lasting two hours, the team gently cut all entangled fishing rope and gear, successfully freeing the adult whale from the entanglement.

The Network has assisted 186 whales to date…