Rebuke for whale ‘space invaders’
Authorities to probe two illegal approaches
WATER sports enthusiasts who got too close and personal with breaching whales off Nahoon Point at the weekend may be in hot water after they were photographed illegally approaching the giant mammals.
A person in a kayak reportedly took selfies with the whales.
East London Museum principal scientist Kevin Cole said the incriminating photographs had been submitted to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Department of Environmental Affairs in Cape Town for investigation.
Cole said that according to the Marine Living Resources Act it was illegal for a vessel to come closer than 300m to a whale.
“On Saturday there was good activity off the Nahoon Point Nature Reserve. There was a group of southern right whales and quite a few groups of humpbacks breaching and slapping their tails off the point. If each had a calf, then there were at least six whales out there.”
He said a few people went closer than was legally acceptable.
“If a whale comes close to [your vessel], you must move away. Many kayaks moved away but one went closer, as did a ski-boat. One individual kept going back with a GoPro taking photographs and selfies and that is not on.”
Of the record four whales which were washed up along the East London and Wild Coast coastline in the past four weeks, one – a juvenile humpback which washed up near Cove Rock last Thursday – showed signs of propeller strike injuries.
“It may have died from injuries caused by the propeller of a skiboat or slightly larger craft,” said Cole, although he could not say whether the strikes killed the young male – which was still suckling – or if these injuries were sustained after it died.
And while it is illegal to get close to cetaceans in the ocean, it is also an offence to remove any part of them when they are dead. Two of the most recent carcasses – one in Kiwane and another at Sandy Point on the West Coast – were chopped up by members of the public and sangomas, who use the meat and blubber for muti.
Cole also warned of the potential health hazard of getting too close to carcasses of marine mammals.
“They carry infectious diseases which are harmful to human health. One of the most common is brucellosis, which affects the reproductive and nervous systems of any marine mammal and can be transmitted to humans through its secretions.”
He said TB and leptospirosis (a bacterial infection) could also affect humans through contact with marine mammals. —