Whales in the wars

Three oceanic whales were freed from fishing gear by divers or snorkellers off three different continents within days of each other last week.

Off Cape Town, South Africa, a local police diver reportedly freed a southern right whale by cutting away more than 60kg of rope and buoys, thought to have been left by crayfishermen.

According to The Cape Argus newspaper, the "adrenaline-fuelled" rescue was carried out while the whale continued to swim and pull the diver, Eben Lourens, through the water. He hauled himself up to the whale along some trailing line, before cutting away metres of thick nylon rope, at times close to the animal's thrashing tail.

Off Queensland's Gold Coast, Australia, a 10m humpback whale was freed from a shark protection net laid near a tourist beach. Staff from a nearby marine theme park tended the whale. Speaking to Australia's The Daily Telegraph, Trevor Long, Director of Sea World, said that humpbacks are known to sleep at the surface, and that there had been quite a few entrapments on still nights.

Off Kodiak in Alaska, a young, 6m humpback was reported to have been freed from ropes, buoys and heavy crab pots by a team of eight biologists, working for five hours from three boats in lumpy conditions. Marine mammal expert Kate Wynne told the Anchorage Daily News that the whale, found "hogtied and almost U-shaped", would have "died that night if it hadn't been freed".

Source: www.divernet.com