Milnerton, 20th October, 2009. At 14h20 following an eye-witness account to a radio station of a whale suspected to be beaching at Sunrise Beach, between Milnerton and Bloubergstrand, Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) officials were dispatched to investigate despite suspicions at first that the whale may be mistaken for two old wrecks that are often mistaken as a beached whale at the Spring Low Tide in the same vicinity.
“On arrival on-scene MCM authorities confirmed that a 4.6 metre female Killer Whale (Orca), approximately 3 years old, was beaching on rocks in the shallow surf at Sunrise Beach and NSRI Table Bay, NSRI Melkbosstrand, the Police Dive Unit, the SPCA and Metro Rescue were activated to assist MCM officers on the scene to attempt to move the whale back out to sea.
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NSRI rescue craft were launched from NSRI Table Bay and NSRI Melkbosstrand.
Prior to the arrival of the emergency services and the NSRI rescue craft the MCM officials, assisted by members of the public, managed to successfully get the whale back out to sea at approximately 17h00 but an hour later the whale was reported to have beached again at Milnerton Lagoon Beach and MCM were dispatched to assess the situation.
Mike Meyer of MCM assisted by four MCM officers swam the whale back out to sea despite the whales attempts to continue to beach.
Police, the Police Dive Unit, Metro Police, NSRI Table Bay, the SPCA, Nature Conservation, EMT (Emergency Medical Training) and officials from the City of Cape Town stood-by on-scene while MCM monitored the whale swimming parallel to the beach front until after dark and a shore patrol will be conducted again in the morning to assess if the whale has re-beached herself.
Mike Meyer confirmed that the animal appears to have an injury on her head but it is not known if this is contributing to the whale attempting to beach herself.
