Another young humpback dead in Simon’s Town
The carcass of a young humpback whale was found in Simon’s Town Harbour on Friday November 8.
According to social media reports, the carcass was first spotted floating above the wreck of the Cable Restorer in the harbour in the early morning.
The 79-year-old ship sank in September last year.
According to the post, the dead whale was reported to the City’s marine and coastal management branch, which started retrieving the carcass by 8am.
The whale, a male that measured 8.7 metres, has been identified as Tango Bravo, according to Alex Vogel, a data manager for Happywhale, a global project that gets citizen scientists to identify individual whales by submitting photographs of them.
Mr Vogel said the initial identification had been made by City crew members who had towed the whale from the water.
“The first picture they sent me enabled me to find a match on Happywhale,” he said.
The whale is the second to have been found dead in Simon’s Town in recent weeks.
The carcass of a young female humpback whale, also identified by Happywhale, washed up on Long Beach in Simon’s Town on Tuesday October 15 (“Young humpback whale identified after washing ashore in Simon’s Town,” Echo October 16).
Chris Wilkinson, of the Mammal Research Institute Whale Unit, said he had taken some samples and measurements of the whale on Friday.
The whale had been in a better condition than the young female found last month, he said.
Samples had been taken and preserved for future educational purposes and were not analysed immediately, he said, adding that the cause of death was unknown.
A flatbed truck hauled the dead whale to a landfill site in Vissershok.
