Ian Klopper, SAWDN team leader, says shortly after 16:30 that day National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) Kommetjie sea rescue craft, Spirit of the Vines and IL Batello, accompanied by SAWDN volunteers and SAWDN specialised disentanglement equipment, launched from the Kommetjie slip-way while an NSRI Hout Bay sea rescue craft, Albie Matthews, accompanied by SAWDN volunteers and SAWDN specialised disentanglement equipment, launched from Hout Bay harbour. According to Klopper, the NSRI Kommetjie sea rescue craft arrived on the scene, finding two southern right whales, one appearing to be entangled in fishing rope and in distress. “The distressed whale submerged on the arrival of the sea rescue craft and on investigation it appears that the entanglement of fishing rope may have been released from the whale when it submerged after the loose fishing rope was found in the vicinity,” he says. The approaching NSRI Hout Bay sea rescue craft came across two southern right whales, swimming freely. The whales fitted the description of the two whales originally sighted by the eye-witness and observed by the SAWDN and NSRI crew on the NSRI Kommetjie sea rescue craft.

Source: News 24 May 12, 2020 10:18 UTC