Cape Town residents in shock as city transports dead humpback whale through the suburbs
Some in Cape Town awoke on Sunday morning to an extraordinary and surreal spectacle: a massive humpback whale embarking on an unlikely and final journey, as it was transported from Hout Bay through the leafy avenues of Constantia.
The creature had met its end off the Kommetjie coastline on Saturday morning, per News24, and then towed with great effort to the Hout Bay Harbour, where it was loaded on a truck for its final journey.
Officials intervened not out of awe for the creature’s grandeur but out of necessity—to ensure the massive creature wouldn’t land on the shore and create a problem. They acted swiftly to stave off the menace of prowling sharks and the inevitable stench that would soon haunt the popular coastline.
Apparently, it took Cape Town authorities 36 hours to successfully dispose of a humpback whale’s carcass, which is said to have been 14.8 metres long, weighing around 35 tonnes.
“We asked the NSRI and they kindly agreed to tow it to Hout Bay harbour. It was a humpback whale,” said City of Cape Town coastal manager Gregg Oelofse.
“It took most of Saturday for the carcass to be towed to Hout Bay harbour, where it was dragged up the slipway, left there overnight, and loaded up on a flatbed truck for disposal at Vissershok [landfill site on the N7] this morning,” said Oelofse.
Then it was dragged through the suburbs leaving everyone’s jaws on the floor in its wake.
The reason they (the City) remove dead whales from the beach is because when they decompose, their bellies distend with gas and then explode, sending whale pieces for miles.”
While it may sound like something out of a nature documentary (or a science fiction movie), exploding whale carcasses are a real thing, and keeping them on the beach can quickly become a problem.
As it turns out, whale strandings are not infrequent in South Africa, especially along the Western Cape. Whales may wash ashore for a variety of reasons, from navigating mishaps to old age or even trying to escape predation from orcas. Beached whales were also reported this month in Cape St Martin with two whales spotted in Simons Town.
Watch video below.
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