What a whale of a tale! [WATCH]
The lives of two denizens of the deep were saved by timeous human intervention.
There are real-life ‘super-heroes’ living among us, heroes who are dedicated to saving our marine animals.
This has been highlighted twice recently.
ALSO READ : Tweni medic’s mercy mission to Mexico
In one instance, Ben Roberts, Robbie Osmond and Louis and Eugene Bouwer were honoured for their bravery and selflessness by the Leisure Bay Conservancy after they saved the life of a humpback whale calf which had become entangled in the shark nets off Ivy Point at TO Strand, Leisure Bay.
The story is a thrilling one.
Louis and his brother Eugene were on the beach one Friday when they saw that a calf was in trouble.
“Its mother and the pod were swimming around the calf, and there was a lot of action around the nets,” said Louis.
When they returned to the beach early on Saturday morning, they saw the baby whale was still trapped.
The brothers paddled out to the nets, but after battling manfully for 40 minutes to free the calf, they realised they needed help – and a bigger, sharper knife to cut through the thick ropes.
Louis and Eugene returned to shore and called on childhood friends, Ben Roberts and Robbie Osmond to assist.
Louis, Ben and Robbie paddled back to the stricken animal.
“The calf was really in trouble. The rope was tightly wound around its head, almost covering its mouth and eyes. By the time we reached it, it was pretty exhausted from fighting the net the whole night,” said Ben, an avid spear fisherman.
“Louis and I were exhausted as we had to keep diving down to cut the ropes and then up again to get a breath of air. But our mission was to save the calf, and we had so much adrenaline pumping through our bodies we didn’t feel the tiredness until we reached the shore.”
Robbie’s role was to hold the surfboards steady while ensuring that Louis and Ben resurfaced safely every few minutes.
“Once the ropes were cut, it eventually managed to free itself completely and swam off.”
The friends swam with it for a short while, guiding it into safer waters.
“The calf then dived under the water and flicked its tail, almost as if to say ‘thank you’,” said the rescuers.
By the time they had paddled back to shore, the calf had rejoined its pod.
Looking back, the men said it was an experience of a lifetime.
“It’s still a talking point at social gatherings, and we will never forget it. We would do it again to save any sea creature,” said Ben.
The friends, who grew up on the beach at Leisure Bay, said they had previously swum with whale sharks, but this was their first close encounter with a humpback.
In a separate incident earlier this year, Hugo Botha and Danny Philp were diving off Ramsgate when Hugo felt something brush against him: it was fishing line. When he looked up he noticed a small whale nearby.
ALSO READ : Who and what is the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI)
“It was circling us and struggling to swim freely,” he said.
Hugo handed his speargun to Danny and swam off to get the line off the whale.
“It was a case of wanting to get close enough to free the whale, but not too close as it was a little scary,” said Hugo.
The moment the line came off – which didn’t take long – the whale swam off into deeper waters.
“It was almost like it had swum in to say, ‘hey guys I need some help’,” he said, adding that it was the experience of a lifetime to be able to help such a magnificent creature.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
For news straight to your phone, add us on WhatsApp 082 421 6033
