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- A 14.3m long female humpback whale appeared off the coast of False Bay in Cape Town on Saturday.
- The National Institute of Maritime Rescue warned bAll attendees should beware of increased shark activity along the shoreline due to washed carcasses.
- The city of Cape Town organized on Sunday the transfer of the carcass to a landfill.
A female humpback whale appeared along the shoreline near Strandfontein off the coast of False Bay in Cape Town on Saturday.
According to Jacques du Toit of the Cape Town City Coastal Management Branch, the body was maneuvered and taken to a flatbed truck on Sunday.
A 14.3 m long female humpback whale found washed up on the coast near Strandfontein, Cape Town, was transported by Cape Town to a landfill on Sunday.
The city of Cape Town removed a female humpback whale from the beach near Strandfontein on Sunday.
He was then secured to the truck and taken to the Vissershok landfill near Table View, where a trench was dug and the body buried.
“Due to the size of the whale, we needed large machinery to remove it, which requires provincial authorization to use such a large truck on the road,” Du Toit said.
He said it was illegal for any unauthorized person to transport or possess any part of a whale. He added that they had to remove the whale in accordance with the City’s whale carcass disposal policy.
“This actually happens quite regularly. We move between 10 and 15 carcasses of whales per year,” he said.
He told News24 that the cause of death was unknown. He said whale populations were growing in the area, which meant you were likely to see more carcasses washed up along the shoreline.
“We were lucky that this whale made it to an area where recovery was quite easy. Sometimes it washes up in inaccessible areas with high dunes or rocks, where vehicles cannot easily reach.”
Du Toit said that from a strictly environmental perspective, they would have preferred not to remove the carcass from the ecosystem at all.
“When you have a 25-ton stinky carcass near people’s homes, it poses a health risk and could become dangerous for swimmers and surfers in the area, as it could attract sharks.”
The National Maritime Rescue Institute (NSRI) has warned bathers to beware of increased shark activity along the False Bay shoreline as a result of the washed carcass.
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