On Saturday 55 false killer whales beached on Kommetjie beach in Cape Town, South Africa. No representative of AOCA was present but AOCA volunteers informed us that what followed was a massive amount of uncoordinated effort, and little understanding on how to deal with the situation. Much mayhem ensued, hundreds of people were trying to save the whales, emotions ran high and escalated when a decision was made by MCM (government department of fisheries) to shoot the whales early afternoon. Many people who had painstakingly made huge efforts to rescue the whales (about 10 were successfully returned to the ocean) felt devastated that they were not given more time and that the decision to kill them was made prematurely. Added to this, that the animals were shot behind a human barrier of people, some only children, who were summoned to assist in preventing the onlookers, including children, to witness the killing, has been severely criticized. AOCA has received numerous calls from distraught and emotionally traumatised people and the incident has reached international levels. Sea Shepherd have got involved, and many other individuals have reached out to the press and are demanding an investigation into the whole event. Clearly it appears that many mistakes were made, that there was no co-coordinated effort, very few with any training whatsoever to deal with the magnitude of the stranding, and some decisions were not carefully considered before being made.
AOCA has been in a number of meetings regarding this and will keep you informed.
Till later,
Lesley Rochat
AOCA Founder |
Locals try to help a whale Photo G Lochner Steenkamp
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