Cape Town - Both the provincial hospital and Hermanus Day Clinic are on the lookout for any increase in potential associated cases after scores of adults and children in Hermanus were seen tearing into, and harvesting, the carcass of a Bryde’s whale that washed up on the rocks close to Schulphoek last week.
The Overstrand Municipality warned residents not to eat the potentially contaminated meat and blubber but when the relevant authorities arrived, only bones and some of the unusable organs of the carcass remained.
Deputy mayor and protection service, Mayco member Lindile Ntsabo, said: “On Wednesday at around 12.45pm the Overstrand Municipality’s environmental management department was alerted through the Overberg Stranding Network. The environmental management services and law enforcement attended the scene, but there was very little to be done to stop the people,” Ntsabo said.
At last report, only about 30% of the whale’s tissue remained.
Ntsabo said that the whale was not removed and they suspected only the bones and some of the unusable organs were left after people harvested the carcass. Ntsabo said he was concerned about the impact that eating the whale carcass could have on the people that tore into it, especially the young children seen in the pictures.
“This is pure speculation, however this could be for personal consumption, to sell or even for traditional medicine. The blubber can also be used for making candles and soap,” he said.
Dr Els Vermeulen, research manager of the Mammal Research Institute’s whale unit at the University of Pretoria, explained that the flesh of marine sea animals such as whales, dolphins, seals and sea turtles, was known as “aquatic bushmeat”.
Vermeulen said this incident showed the vulnerability of coastal communities and highlighted a social situation where people were willing to dig into rotting and decomposing marine mammals for food or other purposes.
“I’ve seen this happen before in Mozambique and in Argentina,” she said.
Vermeulen said marine mammals were sometimes accidentally caught and then coastal communities come in and make the most of the opportunity to harvest the animal.
“It looks barbaric, but the animals are dead. My concern goes towards the health of people consuming the carcass as well. This animal was clearly dead for a few days when it came ashore, so now we’re talking about decomposed meat. So health-wise, I doubt it’s a good idea to go and eat a piece of that meat,” she said.
Vermeulen added this was the second Bryde’s whale to wash ashore recently, as well as four dolphin carcasses in about the same time period (from a week to 10 days).
“The first whale was seen floating in Walker Bay on May 5, also near the Hermanus area. We can confirm, because of the scarring, that it was not same whale stranding twice. It’s definitely two different animals,” she said.