RESCUE OPERATIONS / 18 OCTOBER 2013

WILDERNESS – Whale rescue:

At 19h00 on Thursday the 17th of October NSRI Wilderness volunteer sea rescue duty crew were activated following reports of a baby whale beached at Leentjiesklip, Wilderness.Torsten Henschel, NSRI Wilderness deputy station commander, said: 'Our NSRI Wilderness volunteer sea rescue duty crew responded with our sea rescue vehicle and quad bike. Cape Nature Conservation officers also responded.'On arrival on-scene we found many members of the public were in the process of assisting a baby whale, believed to be a Southern Right whale, 4 meters in length, that was firmly beached, back into the water.'NSRI volunteers and Cape Nature Conservation officers assisted the members of the public but most of the work had already been done by the public members and the whale, appearing to be healthy and strong, swam off strongly.'NSRI and Cape Nature Conservation remained on the scene for a further hour and a half to keep a look out in case the whale re-beach and while no further sign of the whale has been observed we are cautiously optimistic that the whale has been saved.'UPDATE:'By late morning ( Friday 18 October) the baby whale has not re-beached itself. We have a NSRI crew standing by, should the need arise,' said Torsten.Wild News - The Voice of Wilderness, Garden Route, South Africa, took photographs of the incident which they have posted on their Facebook page.