At 07h04, Friday, 10th January, SA Whale Disentanglement Network (SAWDN) volunteers were activated to assist North of Dassen Island where a DEFF (Department of Environment Forestry and Fisheries) research boat, Ellen Khuzwayo, was on the scene at a DEFF research rope, anchored to the sea bed, approximately 5 nautical miles North of Dassen Island, and a juvenile Humpback whale, 7 meters in length, was entangled in the rope.
A SAWDN team from Cape Town responded to join SAWDN Yzerfontein members and 2 NSRI sea rescue craft accompanied by the SAWDN volunteers and accompanied by the specialised disentanglement cutting equipment, were launched by NSRI Yzerfontein duty crew to assist in the operation.
On arrival on the scene in calm sea conditions the whale was found to be in a healthy condition and the SAWDN volunteers found one wrap of rope around the whales Caudal Peduncle and a bunch of rope was attached to that one wrap with two floatation buoys attached.
In a disentanglement operation lasting half an hour, using the specialised cutting equipment, the rope line around the Caudal Peduncle was cut and the rope was recovered with the bunch of rope and the floatation buoys and the whale swam away confidently.
