Good things come to those who wait, although a juvenile humpback whale off Cape Point was certainly put to the test during a rescue operation deemed ‘the most difficult disentanglement operation to date’.

That’s according to the South African Whale Disentanglement Network (SAWDN), who were alerted to the struggling whale around 3PM on Saturday.

The whale was found tangled in fishing rope and flotation buoys 500 metres off-shore of Cape Point, towards the False Bay side. This below from eNCA:

The whale had at least five ropes entangled around the flukes and tail and the rope was twisted and entangled into a bird’s nest of rope. Although the whale had minimal movement it kept avoiding the efforts by SAWDN to cut at the rope by diving below the surface.

It was suspected that the whale might have dragged with it the the rock lobster nets, which appeared to have become snarled in rocks closer to the shore, effectively anchoring the whale to the seabed.

…the operation became increasingly hazardous, particularly with the whale diving to avoid the cutting efforts. It was deemed too unsafe to continue at night and the operation was suspended at 7pm…

NSRI Simonstown duty crew volunteered to launch again before sunrise on Sunday, They arrived on the scene at first light to find the whale in the same place. The disentanglement operation continued.

Although the whale showed signs being tired, efforts to cut the ropes continued to be hampered by it diving. The operation required more resources and a larger vessel was summoned…

Eventually, after a seven-hour operation, all of the lines, estimated to be at least 11 wraps, were cut free of the whale and recovered.

The freed whale appeared to be strong and healthy and swam off.

Below is NSRI’s video of the rescue efforts:

[source:enca]