Recent Humpback Whale Release, Algoa Bay
By Lloyd Edwards
Tuesday, 19th September 2023This was our sixth Humpback whale release that we have assisted with in Algoa Bay. How many more of these distressing situations do we have to endure, before the Rock Lobster Fishery does something about it? More of that later.
We had gone the long route to St Croix Island as there were plenty of Humpbacks in the deep, on their Southern Migration. We were coming in towards Brenton Rock when Tertius shouted from the lookout platform that there was an entangled whale off our port bow. It turned out to be a sub-adult Humpback, with two large orange buoys and a small yellow buoy and a huge amount of 20mm nylon cable attached around the caudal peduncle. This is the base of the caudal fin, where the strong swimming muscles of the tail are found. Luckily this chap was in good health and with minimum damage, I have seen much worse. The entanglement looked recent. The whale must have got entangled on the Rock Lobster grounds, about 50km south of Cape Recife. The name written on the buoys was “Lubbetjie”, which is one of the current Rock Lobster fishing boats.
We called Port Control and gave them the GPS coordinates and a description of the entanglement. This was then passed onto the National Sea Rescue Institute NSRI and they started to mobilise their crew. We couldn’t stay on station as we still had to go to the islands. On the way back we found the whale again and directed the NSRI. Read the disentanglement process as explained in the attached images. There were so many strands wrapped around the animal that the cutting process was quite tricky, but our skillful team soon had the beast free and on its way.
What is so disturbing is that if we had not located the whale, it would have taken months to die and a painful agonising death at that. How many beautiful whales have we observed washed up on our beaches? Those are the ones we see; the others die far out to sea and sink. How much longer will the Rock Lobster Fishery ignore our pleas to introduce ropeless fishing. The technology is there, as can be seen by the attached images that I photographed when I was at the New Bedford whaling station in the US. They have been used with huge success in preventing entanglements of Northen Right Whales, which have almost been wiped out by Rock Lobster Gear!
If you have not signed our No More Ropes Petition please do so and circulate it to your friends. If we can get more people to sign, it gives the Minister more power to force the fishing industry to implement this technology. ENTANGLEMENTS CAN BE AVOIDED IF WE ALL DO OUR BIT!
PLEASE SIGN AND FORWARD OUR PETITION “NO MORE ROPES – SAVE OUR WHALES”
The World Cetacean Alliance is developing a project that hopes to turn ropes and fishing gear retrieved from rescue operations, into sunglasses. This is being done in conjunction with a manufacturer in England. The story of the disentanglement will also be told to the purchasers of those sunglasses. It is hoped that this project will raise awareness about Ropeless Fishing.
