RESCUE OPERATIONS / 19 DECEMBER 2016

NSRI assists a young woman who had fallen from a horse and we tow the carcass of a juvenile humpback whale

HOUT BAY:Geoff Stephens, NSRI Hout Bay deputy station commander, said:At 01h08, Monday, 19th December, NSRI Hout Bay dispatched our sea rescue craft Albie Matthews to investigate reports of red distress flares spotted by eye-witnesses and suspected to have come from a nautical mile out to sea off-shore of The Sentinal. No sign of any persons or craft in distress were found and the origin of the flares and the reason for their deployment are unknown.Then at around 09h25 NSRI Hout Bay duty crew dispatched the sea rescue craft Albie Matthews to investigate reports of a whale sighted by eye-witnesses and suspected to be entangled off-shore of Llandudno, a nautical mile West of Llandudno beach.On arrival on the scene we found an 8 meter male juvenile Humpback whale carcass and The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) requested our assistance to tow the whale to Hout Bay harbour where Marine Scientists could take samples of the whale carcass and where the City of Cape Town waste disposal team could remove the carcass for disposal.NSRI Kommetjie, on the water at the time conducting training exercises, assisted. Without incident we towed the carcass to Hout Bay harbour where the whale carcass was loaded onto a flat bed trailer truck for safe removal.

Photograph by NSRI Hout Bay of the whale carcass being towed. img-20161219-wa0029

JEFFREYS BAY:Rieghard Janse van Rescburg, NSRI Jeffreys Bay station commander, said:NSRI Jeffreys Bay duty crew were activated at 16h47, Monday, 19th December, following a request for medical assistance for a woman, aged 23, from Koffiefontein, reportedly fallen from a horse and kicked by the horse between Kabaljous and Gamtoos, about 11 km across soft beach sand from Jeffreys Bay, while on an arranged group out ride on horses.The Kouga Water Emergency Action plan was activated and we dispatched our sea rescue quad bike and our rescue vehicle and Private Care ambulance services and EC Government Health EMS responded.Our NSRI medical crew (including an NSRI Intermediate Life Support paramedic) treated the young woman while we ferried an advanced life support EMS paramedic to the scene on our quad bike as the ambulances were not able to reach the scene across the soft sand.The patient was medically treated for suspected concussion and secured into a Kendricks extrication device to protect her cervical spine and we transported her on our Sea Rescue vehicle to the waiting ambulances and she has been transported to hospital for further treatment in a stable condition. hb01