Trapped Whale rescued in Table Bay

[LazyLion]

A baby Humpback whale which was trapped between the quayside and a ship was rescued on Monday at the Port of Table Bay in Cape Town, said the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI).

Officials were alerted to the whale late on Sunday night.

"It appeared too disorientated to move backwards to where the gap between the ship and the quay widened and [it] continually ... wedged itself up against the ship and the quayside where the ship's side was pressed hard against the quayside," said NSRI spokesman Craig Lambinon.

Efforts to guide the eight-metre long whale out of entrapment were unsuccessful.

It injured its mouth as it nudged against the tyre fenders of the quay.

Rescue workers decided to move the ship to make space for it to move.

"Once the ship had been moved aside, the ... crews and police divers moved in to attempt to coax the whale and to guide the whale away from the quayside," said Lambinon.

The whale refused to move.

Police divers pushed it away from the quay but it continuously returned to its original place.

"Remarkably the whale then decided to follow the tug boat Merlot, which had by now released her lines to the now docked ship," said Lambinon.

Rescue workers assume the distressed and disorientated whale may have mistaken the ship for its mother.

"The tug boat was instructed to head out to sea and the whale followed [it] it off the Port exit to open waters."

Officials said they were cautiously optimistic that the whale would survive since it was highly disorientated and separated from its mother.

They would monitor the area to check if it would return.


Source : Sapa /nsm/fg/jje
Date : 28 Oct 2013 08:00

 

[marine1]

Please god it survives, nothing upsets me more than an animal in distress

 

[Ockie]

Please god it survives, nothing upsets me more than an animal in distress

Same .... I find it terribly upsetting. It upsets me more than people I think also because with a animal .... you dont know if they understand what is happening to them or why it is happening to them ... and you cant explain that you are trying to help them. :-(

 

[marine1]

Same .... I find it terribly upsetting. It upsets me more than people I think also because with a animal .... you dont know if they understand what is happening to them or why it is happening to them ... and you cant explain that you are trying to help them. :-(

Yip, I have no compassion for humans. Unfortunately. Guess seeing humans at their worst for a long time made me that way. I am very cautious about people saying that they are in need.
Animals? I chose them over humans 9 times out of 10

 

[Grant]

Well done to all who helped !!

 

[Ninja'd]

So now it has to fend for itself. Imagine it running into a pod of orcas with no mother protecting it.

 

[Ockie]

So now it has to fend for itself. Imagine it running into a pod of orcas with no mother protecting it.

But what would be the alternative? At least now it has got a chance? Perhaps the mom and babe with find each other? Their calls travels for many kilometers I think.

 

[Solarion]

Yip, I have no compassion for humans. Unfortunately. Guess seeing humans at their worst for a long time made me that way. I am very cautious about people saying that they are in need.
Animals? I chose them over humans 9 times out of 10

Kids & animals I will walk on hot coals for them, but adults no. It just feels nowadays like everyone is trying to screw everyone else over.

 

[marine1]

Kids & animals I will walk on hot coals for them, but adults no. It just feels nowadays like everyone is trying to screw everyone else over.

Yip, but I dont like kids unfortunately

 

[ponder]

So now it has to fend for itself. Imagine it running into a pod of orcas with no mother protecting it.

Should they put it in a fish tank rather?

 

[Solarion]

Yip, but I dont like kids unfortunately

Fair enough

 

[Ockie]

Yip, but I dont like kids unfortunately

lol.

 

[Ninja'd]

But what would be the alternative? At least now it has got a chance? Perhaps the mom and babe with find each other? Their calls travels for many kilometers I think.

All people can do is hope for the best. Would hate to see it turn out like this.


www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/lost-baby-whale-to-be-killed-1.413387

August 21 2008 at 02:47pm
Sydney - A lost baby whale which captured Australians' hearts as it tried to suckle from a yacht it thought could be its mother will soon be killed to end its suffering, wildlife rangers said Thursday.

"He's taken a really serious turn for the worse just now," said John Dengate, spokesperson for the Department of National Parks and Wildlife which has been at the forefront of efforts to save the animal.

"The vets have had a look, they've said he's having breathing difficulties, his flippers are at an unusual angle, he's not going to last much longer, you should put him down," he told national radio.

The baby humpback was discovered on Monday in Pittwater bay near Sydney's Palm Beach, trying to suckle on the hull of a whale-sized anchored yacht, after apparently being abandoned by its mother.

In a remarkable effort to return it to the ocean, the calf - dubbed Colin after the man who first found it - was lured out to sea by the 'mother ship'.

But after failing to find its own mother or an adoptive parent among the pods of whales passing Pittwater, Colin returned to the bay and again began trying to suckle yachts.

With public concern over the calf's fate growing, the army was asked whether it could help with a flotation device to take Colin back out to sea and a scientist suggested it could be fed formula milk through an artificial teat.

But the logistics of feeding and looking after a whale calf which would need about 230 litres of milk a day were insurmountable, experts said.

"The vets who had a look at him were really surprised at how fast he'd gone downhill," Dengate said. "Their advice to us was 'he's not going to last much longer, he's suffering and you should take action'."

"It's a really tragic result from an
operation that people worked really,
really hard (on)."

Nobody knows why the uninjured calf was apparently abandoned by its mother, with some experts saying that, while this happened sometimes in the wild, it was also possible the two had become separated somehow.

The humpbacks are on the return leg of a remarkable annual round trip from the Antarctic to tropical waters to breed, and they can be seen ploughing homewards not far off Sydney's beaches on most days. - AFP

 

[CaffeinePirate]

Poor thing.

http://www.nsri.org.za/2013/10/sawdn-assist-whale-in-table-bay-harbour/

 

[abandonallhope]

I don't understand how you can have more compassion for an animal than you have for another human being.

 

[Rocket Raccoon]

Animals good, humans evil.

 

[Ninja'd]

Kids & animals I will walk on hot coals for them, but adults no. It just feels nowadays like everyone is trying to screw everyone else over.

I'm an equal opportunity offender and would bother with neither.

 

[Ninja'd]

I don't understand how you can have more compassion for an animal than you have for another human being.

Funny how I got the reverse reaction last week.

 

[Solarion]

All people can do is hope for the best. Would hate to see it turn out like this.


www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/lost-baby-whale-to-be-killed-1.413387

Nobody knows why the uninjured calf was apparently abandoned by its mother, with some experts saying that, while this happened sometimes in the wild, it was also possible the two had become separated somehow.

Someone please give Captain Obvious here a medal.

 

[Compton_effect]

I don't understand how you can have more compassion for an animal than you have for another human being.

We're desensitised to human suffering. Its sad, but true. Anything that happens to a animal that we can relate to, shocks us worse than if it was a human, because we don't have a frame of reference to compare it to.