Beached humpback whale in Namibia successfully refloated

Posted by Anita Froneman on 15 June 2021

A combined team effort and long hours of struggle saw a live stranded humpback whale in Namibia helped back safely into the ocean on Monday, June 14.

Naude Dreyer, founding team member of Ocean Conservation Namibia shared this incredible story on Facebook:

‘I received a call from JP at Red Dune Safaris Namibia that his brother Jacques had found a live humpback whale on the beach at Sandwich Harbour, 50km south of Walvis Bay,’ Dreyer said. ‘Together with Namibian Dolphin Project, we took all the manpower we could muster and headed out. We struggled for nearly 3 hours, often close to giving up hope.

‘His breathing was slow and not making much effort to try and swim. Eventually at the last moment after a big set of waves, he had enough water under himself and he made a big push to get to deeper water. You can tell how overjoyed we were! It was a huge team effort and we cannot say thanks enough to Travel Uncharted Tours for providing a car and the legend Pule, the Mola Mola Safaris Namibia and Sandwich Harbour 4×4 guides that jumped in too, and Jack and his team from @namibiandolphinproject. This was probably the 10th large whale stranding I’ve attended, but the first successful refloating. I was starting to lose hope, but this will give us strength for the next 20!’ he concluded.

Take a look:

The Ocean Conservation Namibia Trust (OCN) is a non-governmental organisation created in 2020 with a primary focus on ocean rubbish and plastic pollution and the resulting entanglement of marine wildlife, particularly seals, along the Namibian Coast.

Picture: Screenshot from video






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