A juvenile humpback whale had to be humanely euthanised after it beached at St Micheal’s beach in southern KwaZulu-Natal late on Tuesday afternoon.
National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) Shelly Beach deputy station commander, Ruahn Beattie said they were alerted to the incident just before 6pm.
He explained that various stakeholders, including the KZN Marine Animal Stranding Network, Ezemvelo, and Med-Evac, as well as police and local search and rescue teams, also responded.
"After efforts to re-float the whale through the surf was not successful, with the whale continuing to return from the surf-line to beach, it was considered to launch an NSRI rescue craft to take the whale out to sea, but authorities on the scene deemed the whale to be injured, not in good health, and would not survive," he said.
Beatty said marine authorities decided to euthanise the ill whale at the scene.
He said local security was deployed to guard the carcass, which was later washed out to sea by the high tide.
Beatty added that officials will continue to monitor the area to see if the carcass washes ashore.
Earlier in the month, a whale carcass was removed from the Virginia Beach in Durban North.
There were also spectators standing by with buckets, waiting to get a piece of the whale. They did not want to go into much detail, and refused to give their names, but said whale fat is used by traditional healers, and they were going to be selling it to them as it is used for luck.
IOL