Tethered whale freed in SA + rare strandings in UKWhen fishing-boat crew reported a large whale entangled in fishing rope south of Cape Recife in South Africa on the morning of 2 September, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) was quick to respond. Two of its rescue craft were dispatched from Gqeberha carrying South African Whale Disentanglement Network (SAWDN)-trained crew equipped with specialist cutting and other equipment. “We found a large humpback whale entangled in fishing rope trailing a flotation buoy and appearing to be anchored to the seabed by one of the ropes,” said NSRI Gqeberha cox’n Kevin Warren. It is only the fifth fin whale reported in Wales in the past 24 years. The previous day, I September, a 2.7m juvenile female long-finned pilot whale had live-stranded on Rhossili Bay beach, also in south Wales on the Gower peninsula.