During a rescue mission, in order to get the ropes off the whale, rescuers have to get close to some of the most dangerous areas of the animal, said Mike Meyers, operations manager for the South African Whale Disentanglement Network. The tail of this Humpback Whale may look like it is very close to the rescuers, “but the boat is just staying out of range of a tail strike”, said Meyers. PHOTO: Supplied/Mike Meyers
There are very few creatures who have captured the human imagination in the way whales do. But despite their enormous size, their biggest threat to their survival continues to be human activity. The South African coast has seen many whale entanglements over the past years leading to risky rescue missions by disentanglement professionals.
“Humpback whales and Southern Right Whales are migratory because the places they eat are not good for breeding and vice versa,” explained Erin Ross-Marsh, SU PhD candidate associated with Sea Search.
“These whale species have specific habitat requirements for their feeding grounds and their breeding grounds and have to often travel vast distances between them.” GRAPHIC/Jamie Venter
As heavy as a thousand men and ten tonnes larger than Herman Melville’s malevolent Moby Dick, a 90 tonne Southern Right Whale is a daunting animal to approach.
But since 2016, rising whale entanglements along South African coastlines has caused increased interaction between animals and professionals. This is according to Mike Meyers, operations manager for the South African Whale Disentanglement Network (SAWDN).
“The single biggest threat to cetaceans [entirely aquatic mammals] is bycatch in fishing gear which is estimated to kill more than 300 000 whales, dolphins and porpoises every year,” Kate Wilson, of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), told MatieMedia via email correspondence.
“Entanglements happen when fishing gear, rope, plastic sheeting etc. is discarded in the
ocean, either intentionally or accidentally, and becomes entangled in a body part of a whale,” explained Sasha Dines, a PhD candidate at Stellenbosch University (SU) associated with Sea Search. “Ghost fishing entanglements have been seen in all three species of whale [Humpback Whale, Southern Right Whale and Bryde’s Whale] around the SA coastline,” said Erin Ross-Marsh, another SU PhD candidate associated with Sea Search.
Ghost fishing gear “is any discarded, lost, or abandoned fishing gear in the marine environment”, explains the United States’ National Ocean Service website.
“It is predominantly discarded fishing gear and anchor ropes that gets caught on whales,” explained Meyers. “Unfortunately the first thing a whale does when it hits a rope is spin – which makes it worse.”
Entanglements can cause a number of issues for the animals, including difficulty eating, moving and in some cases causing wounds that can be life threatening, explained Dines. “Most of the adult beached whales we see have some form of entanglement scarring,” added Ross-Marsh.
“Although not a cause of death definitely, it is likely entanglements reduced [whales’] fitness and therefore led them to struggle to dive, feed, travel etc. all contributing factors to their declining health and eventual death,” said Erin Ross-Marsh, a SU PhD candidate associated with Sea Search.
The South African Whale Disentanglement Network (SAWDN) works to free these animals, explained Mike Meyers, operations manager for the SAWDN.
More fish, more nets, more whales, more threats
“There was an environmental change along the west coast that created favourable feeding conditions in the area,” explained Meyers. As a result, since 2011, ‘super-groups’ of between 20 and 200 Humpback Whales can be seen hunting in the area, explained Dines.
“It is really unique,” said Dr Els Vermeulen, research manager for the Mammal Research Institute Whale Unit at the University of Pretoria (UP). “It is the largest conglomeration of Humpback Whales on the earth outside of the Antarctic,” Vermeulen explained.
However commercial fishing entities are heavily active in this area and as a result entanglements are more frequent, explained Meyers. “There are between 28 to 36 yearly, which is a major amount,” said Meyers.
“It is not an ideal scenario,” said Vermeulen.
“SA has a great disentanglement unit,” said Ross-Marsh of the SAWDN, adding that they are “world leaders in whale disentanglement and have a high success rate”. But “disentanglements are dangerous”, said Meyers. It is also not a sustainable solution, according to Meyers.
Southern Right Whales “are exceptionally mean animals and also very powerful,” said Mike Meyers, operations manager for the South African Whale Disentanglement Network. “They will often strike at boats that are close.”
This Southern Right Whale was thrashing as it tried to kick off tangled fishing gear and the crew was “waiting for the whale to stop thrashing before making repeated cuts on the ropes attached to the tail until all ropes were removed”, explained Meyers.
How to catch a whale
“The Southern Right Whale is a very powerful whale. A whale that size could drag the boat underwater,” said Meyers. “And we have to adhere to very strict safety protocols.”
The most dangerous areas of the whale are the flippers, the head and the tail, said Meyers. “The tail is extremely dangerous, especially with the Southern Right Whale because they can kick sideways,” he added.
Despite their immense weight, small groups of whalers have been able to subdue giants like the Southern Right Whale and Humpback Whale since as early as the 1600’s. This is according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) website. The hunters speared whales with harpoons attached to ropes and anchored to their boats, explained Meyers. Then the men would wait out the storm while the whale towed their vessel forward as it struggled to free itself, said Meyers. Until, eventually the animal would tire, slowing down or halting entirely, he added.
“We work very much like the old whalers do, except we don’t use a harpoon,” explained Meyers.
This Humpback Whale was found tangled in gear that was caught on the ocean floor and could only swim in circles, explained Mike Meyers, operations manager for the South African Whale Disentanglement Network.
“In the process of trying to avoid the disentanglement vessel, the whale has turned upside down which gave the team an opportunity to cut one of the ropes running across the fluke,” said Meyers. PHOTO: Supplied/Mike Meyers
“The response teams get out there as fast as they can. But when you get to the whale you actually go as slowly as possible so as not to get the animal more excited,” explained Meyers. Once the animal has been assessed, the team uses a grapple tied into the ropes that are tangled around the whale, he explained.
“Then we let out what is called a working line which is attached to our vessel and has large kegging buoys that are almost a metre wide,” said Meyers. “These buoys slow the animals down and prevent them from diving away.”
“If the two buoys don’t tire them out, we attach a boat to the working line and let him carry that as well,” explained Meyers.
“With Southern Right Whales we just slow them down, but with Humpbacks we actually stop them,” said Meyers.
“When the animal is tired, we switch off the motor and we pull ourselves along the rope towards,” explained Meyers.
“At that stage we come in with specialised knives on poles and we cut the ropes,” he explained. “We generally work from the front to the back of the whale so that we don’t lose the whale. We make very careful decisions on what we cut so we can ensure that the last rope we cut is the last rope that is attached to the whale.”
In December of 2021, protestors from across South Africa gathered at their local beaches to object to proposed seismic surveys along the West Coast, because of concerns that it may cause harm to local marine life, including whales. This is according to Megan Moulang, who was amongst the protestors.
“Whales are indicator species,” explained Ross Marsh, a SU PhD candidate associated with Sea Search. They have a vital role in ecosystem health and are indicative of the health of their immediate environment, she explained. “Long story short: When the whales aren’t doing well our oceans aren’t doing well.” PHOTO/Jamie Venter
Stormy seas ahead
Humans are the biggest threat to whales, said Dines. “Whether that means climate change, entanglement, ship strikes, marine/offshore mining, pollution (noise/physical debris), or overfishing; the greatest threat to whales is the activity of humans in their environment.”
“Climate change is having a notable effect on the whole ecosystem of our oceans,” said Dines. “We are already seeing movement of prey species and depletion in prey availability is causing migrating whales to source food elsewhere.”
Human activity has caused these threats and human activity can reduce them, explains Ross-Marsh. Ways in which human behaviour can be adapted to reduce these threats are, according to Ross-Marsh:
- Reducing fish consumption
- Eat locally caught fish from sustainable fishing methods, such as hand line fisheries.
- Buy local. This reduces reliance on shipping and international produce transportation that interrupts whales natural migration.
- Move away from gas and oil reliance. Choose solar panels and electric cars in the future. Climate change affects whale’s food resources.
Reduce plastic consumption (reduce/reuse/recycle). Pollution has a huge impact on fish species due to plastic in our oceans – this in turn moves up the food chain to affect whales.
South Africans showed their concern for marine life in December of 2021 by attending protests against a proposed seismic surveying along the coast by oil and gas company, Shell, explained Megan Moulang, who was amongst the protestors. “Whales don’t have a voice and I felt like I was contributing to giving them one,” said Moulang. PHOTO/Jamie Venter
