Whale freed from nets in Ballito

As hundreds of local residents and tourists bathed in the sun and soaked up the surfing action, an adolescent whale of about 18 months old was stuck in the shark nets roughly 200 metres offshore from Surfer’s Beach in Ballito on Tuesday.

The 10 to 15 tonne humpback whale became entangled in the nets at around 11am Tuesday morning after swimming inshore.

Humpbacks can often be seen swimming along the coastline this time of year as they enter warmer waters for their annual breeding season before moving north to their feeding grounds later in the year.

“The animal was in pretty bad shape when we arrived on the scene. It was underweight and was full of scars,” said Mike Andersen-Reade, head of operations at KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board (KZNSB).

Andersen-Reade said that the young humpback caught in the nets was the same animal seen swimming off Salt Rock yesterday afternoon and it did not appear to be part of a pod.

Quentin Power of the Specialised Rescue Unit said that KZNSB deployed two boats release the whale and replace the shark nets which they had to cut in order to free the animal.

After almost two hours, the young whale was freed at 1.45pm and guided into deeper waters while the pro-surfers entertained the crowd one wave at a time directly in front.

“It is always great to help out a suffering animal, so we are happy that we managed to cut the whale free and to see it swimming again,” said Andersen-Reade, who has been at KZNSB for more than 30 years.

Andersen-Reade said his team conducts an average of six whale releases per year with the majority of call-outs happening between September and October, but with 14 500 humpback whales and about 400 southern-right whales along the KZN coastline, these averages can change at any given time.

He went on to say that releasing a whale trapped in the nets is anything but easy as the size and temperament of the animal makes the situation of freeing it extremely dangerous, which is why no unauthorised individual is permitted to get within 300 metres of the animal.

For this reason, Andersen-Reade said that all whale release operations should be left to KZNSB as the sheer size and power of these animals can quickly turn good intentions into a fatal encounter.