STRANDED WHALE TOWED OUT TO SEA

A NINE metre male humpback whale — which was stranded in shallow water at Hogan Park in Port Elizabeth for about five-and-a-half hours — was on Sunday afternoon being towed out to sea. National Sea Rescue Institute station commander Ian Gray said a pilot boat was towing the mammal while a Metro Rescue rubber duck was standing by to release the creature. He said a NSRI boat was also the on scene to prevent the mammal from returning to the shore. The whale was spotted in the surf around 10am on Sunday morning and became stranded in about one metre of water. With big waves pushing it toward the shore rescuers were afraid the large mammal would beach itself making it next to impossible to return it to the ocean. Two weeks ago another humpback whale was blown up after it beached itself at the Van Staden’s River mouth, west of Port Elizabeth. – Sapa