Locals in Grande Comore island mobilised to rescue a 10-ton baby humpback whale stranded near the port of Moroni. With rudimentary means but much effort, they managed to keep the baby whale alive until it could move back into the Indian Ocean.

Two humpback whales – a female adult and its calf - were stranded in Kaleweni bay, near the port of Moroni, in Grande Comore island. While the mother managed to swim back offshore, into the Indian Ocean, the calf was left stranded in the bay, at low tide.

Professional divers, coast guards, fishermen, policemen, volunteers, all mobilised efforts throughout Sunday to keep the stressed whale alive.

“We only had our arms and will-power to help the calf while it was stranded in the bay,” said Nazir Farid, the head of Comores Plongée, a local diving company.

“We had to continuously pour water on it to keep it alive because it was low tide in the bay. We used water pumps, buckets, our hands to do so, from early morning till around midday when the tide rose again.”

Southern Hemisphere humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) migrate each year from Antarctic feeding grounds to tropical areas where they gather for breeding.

“They travel from the South Pole, off the coasts of South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar and swim further north towards our waters to mate and calve.

“They usually stay till mid-October before swimming back to the South Pole,” Farid told RFI.

After managing to swim out of the bay, the calf was caught in fishing nets laid out in deep water. Farid and some fishermen undertook another strenuous rescue mission. This time, precariously perched on a small wooden boat which was moving erratically because of the highly stressed mammal, the men attempted to cut the nets while making sure they did not injure the whale or themselves.

The calf was finally disentangled from the fishing nets, only to find itself nearing the shore. The rescue team managed to guide it offshore.

Hours into the rescue, the whale appeared to be distressed and weak. The local team monitoring its progress observed, at nightfall, two adults humpback whales swimming towards its direction.

“We believe that the baby whale is still alive because it surely would have been washed ashore on Monday, if that was not the case,” said RFI’s correspondent Abdallah Mzembaba in Moroni.

According to the National Geographic, humpback whale numbers were severely reduced before the 1985 ban on commercial whaling, but the numbers in many population groups have since improved.

It says the biggest threats to humpback whales are collisions with ships and entanglement in fishing gear.