WHALE UPDATE
POSTED 07 NOVEMBER 2005

IN REPLY TO AN EQUIRY BY PEARLY BEACH ONLINE, DYER ISLAND CRUISES RESPONDED WITH THE FOLLOWING INFORMATIVE EMAIL:

The whale was first spotted floating upside down just off Danger Point on 20 September. Dyer Island Cruises went out to photograph it for scientific purposes. At that stage one could not tell the cause of death.

Dyer Island Cruises (DIC) is planning a Marine Center for the Gansbaai Area. Being aware of the time it takes to process animals like this, Wilfred Chivell, director of DIC, decided to call in the services of Piet Pretorius. He is a world class taxidermist who did most of the skeletons and models in the SA Museum, Cape Town. The whale washed up close to Pearly Beach on 25 September and was left there for four weeks on his advice, to mature enough for the bones to be extracted without too much effort.

It was a joint venture of Dyer Island Cruises (DIC) and the Gansbaai Municipality to handle the carcass not to be a health hazard. The Municipality was of great help, providing digger loaders where necessary. DIC is funding the project and obtained a permit to process the whale from MCM and also a permit from Cape Nature to take vehicles onto the beach during the operation. On 29 and 30 October Piet Pretorius, 3 assistants and 8 local people extracted the bones to start the 3 year process to prepare this Southern Right Whale to come back to Gansbaai. DIC believes that a display of the animals that attracts tourists, who contribute significantly to our whole area’s socio-economic well-being, is a necessity for our area and will contribute to the awareness about conservation of our eco-system.

On inspection of the bones, it became clear that this 14m adult female whale most likely died due to a ship strike. The 4 Rostrum (nose) bones are missing. It seems as if she was struck on the nose forcing the nose bones to be pushed back, crushing the fused atlas vertebras at the top of the spine. Death was probably quite quick. Another blow to the back, breaking four spine bones might have occurred later while she was floating, probably by night and not clearly visible to ships. We would like to make as many people as possible aware to be on the look out for the four missing bones. They could however wash up as far as Hermanus as we do not know at what stage they came loose.

The people of Pearly Beach were very helpful. Jan Koekemoer made a trailer available, provided us with lock-up facilities for our vehicles and temporary storage for the bones before they went to Cape Town. Yolanda du Toit provided accommodation for (a smelly) Piet Pretorius and his people.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have more questions. Piet Pretorius promised us a 3 monthly report to keep us informed of the progress. We will be happy to fill you in at a later stage.

Susan Visagie
Project Manager for Dyer Island Cruises.