Almost thirty long-finned pilot whales were stranded on Strahan’s Ocean Beach, Tasmania, on Friday. Five animals were saved.
According to the Sunday Tasmanian:
“Rough surf made it impossible to return the whales to the water in the same place they were stranded, so a massive rescue mission was launched early yesterday morning to transport them by trailer to Macquarie Harbour.
The whales — the biggest weighing about two tonnes — were each lifted by an army of 10 people on to the back of a trailer, which was lined with mattresses donated by a local hotel.
The whales were then driven 11km away from Ocean Beach — a well-known spot for whale strandings — and returned to the water in Macquarie Harbour in an operation that took almost six hours.”
Bravo to the volunteers.
See some pictures of the whales here: http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,20862210-3462,00.html
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
The question why the whales beach themselves is still to be resolved.
Do they strand due to their sonar doesn’t work in shallow waters and they become disoriented, are they sick,noice pollution from military sonar and oil drilling ?
Has Libby or anybody else some new information re this sad issue???
And a big thanks to all volunteers that try to help these unlucky whales…
And why are pilot whales in Tasmania and NZ most affected by strandings?
Anne
Sad as it is, it happens but why do humans have to interfere with, at first sight, natural processes? Or should I say, some humans.
Perhaps it is an ignorance of death that lies at the heart of the problem, (and then of life itself).
No Louis. It is about hope and empathy.
Methink that most humans, yes, even in whaling countries, like to save stranded whales.
They do that in Norway anyway , even if some whalers thought it was really crazy with this ” save the Thames whale action” some months ago.
Maybe in Korea they are glad for stranded whales and use them for consumption?
Anyway, when animals are in distress, many people act and do their best to save them.
I have another example of empathy. During a big oil spill action in the Baltic Sea last winter, the authorities opened the public saunas for the cleaned sea birds, and this was during a time when people were scared for the bird flu…it was necessary to keep the birds in rooms where it was warm due to hypothermia that otherwise could affect the birds…
Strandings likely occur for various reasons and have done for centuries if not thousands of years, long before most of the reasons bandied about today in the blame game – it would be interesting to see if anyone has gone over historical records to see if frequency has increased in modern times.
One factor often ignored in strandings is the animal size and length of time stranded – there comes a “cut-off ” point where it would be more humane to simply euthanise the animal .. I´ve seen a few papers regarding tagging of stranded animals that have been refloated, the survival rate from short-term strandings of smaller species is relatively good – the survival rate from longer strandings is relatively lousy … and the survival rate of larger animals such as sperm whales is abysmal -I´ll see if I can find the papers via google…
Empathy is fine and well, but their comes a point where it must be put aside in order to minimise suffering
Hi George,
To minimize suffering must be first priority, yes,… however, all people who have worked with animals sometimes face difficult decisions… shall I euthanize the animal or maybe give it a chance to survive( despite the sufferings)? Common sense or shall I say experience is crucial in those decisions…
Ocean Beach has apparently been host to a number of strandings. There are recognized stranding hotspots in places like Tasmania and NZ. There is a likelihood of more strandings over the summer period in Tasmania.
I question how well the remaining whales will go, given the long period of time they were left inactive on their sides.
Hi Libby,
Are the pilot whales gonna be tagged , so you can make a follow-up?
Would be good to know what happen to these pilot whales.
Reg the sperm whales, read once that stranded sperm whales should be let to die a natural death…maybe because the big whale’s internal organs are more prone to be damaged than the smaller whales’ ones ??? No euthanasia should be used, neither barbiturates or rifles. However, haven’t checked this info , so dunno how correct this info is, as I know as well that there exist barbiturates for whales as big as sperm whales too.
Most humane method for a Sperm whale Anne is a large caliber explosive projectile-ie, a bazooka . Strange but true
Hi Ann,
I’d be guessing, but I’d say the pilots wont be tagged with any sort of telemetry. We don’t tend to do that in Australia. It is a shame, and not very productive really when you can pour so much money and resources into getting the animals back out to sea.
There was a Bryde’s whale that beached last week whilst chasing fish in close to shore. They managed to tow it out to sea using a trawler. I was amazed at how easily it all seemed to go, and presumably the animal didn’t suffer any broken flippers or other serious injuries throughout the ordeal..
Apparently there are barbiturates for large whale euthanasia. I would imagine these would be very expensive to administer. In fact I have a paper on it somewhere I will try and dig out for you if you’re interested, it’s in PDF form.
We tend to leave sperm whales to die, especially mass strandings. They are almost impossible to move, and as you say, the bigger the animal the more risk of internal damage the longer they stay high and dry.
There was a guy in NZ who used to have a flensing knife like implement and he would euthanase whales by basically cutting their jugular. He had a lot of expertise, but somehow I can’t see Department of Conservation allowing that nowadays.
Libby,
Don´t your lot use ribbon tags to make resightings easier? If not, why not?
Libby, George,
Thanks for the info and Libby, please post the pdf-file…
Guess that many animals were killed in the old times going for the jugular vein…. sounds quite messy, but of course how easy or difficult to euthanize an animal this way depends much on their anatomy…
Probably worth pointing out that stranded whales were often utilised opportunistically by Maori in New Zealand.
I’m not sure, but I think under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1978, consumption of the meat may have been banned. However, I think iwi are still able to access whale bone and teeth via some kind of procedure with the Department of Conservation.
Many Maori (including one MP of the incumbent Labour Government, Shane Jones) apparently feel that the New Zealand government is failing to represent their interests with their outright “NO WHALING!” stance.
Sir Tipene O’regan and Archie Tairoa are other prominent Maori who support the rights of indigenous people to consume whale resources (on a sustainable basis that is).
I believe Glenn Inwood, who is the western media spokesperson for the Institute of Cetacean Research is also part Maori.
Of course, in places such as Australia, if the current day human population has no desire to utilise these stranded whales then I see no problem with them trying to push them back into the sea, providing that they do so with care not to simply prolong the whale’s death.
The latest:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200612/s1803949.htm
Hi Ann, will get the PDF to you on Wednesday.
Hi George, yes ribbon tags/streamers are often used for short-term resightings. Don’t know about this case though.
Hi David, from memory there is something about Iwi utilisation of stranded marine mammals in DOC’s action plan report thingy they released a year or so ago. It’s available on the DOC website.
Could someone please explain how the consumption of a dead stranded whale could possibly be classed as “unsustainable”?
Is there some sort of minimum resource of dead whales that needs to be maintained?
If these whales were horses and they had the same survival prospects from the “assistance” of the whale molesters, then all would agree that the humane thing would be to dispatch them quickly.
But whale rescue is not about whales at all, is it? It is all about narcissism, the feel good posturing of the rescuers while the whales continue to suffer.
The irony in all this is that no abattoir worker would ever, ever, allow an animal to die that slowly.
Who decides to let the whales live or to euthanise them,does an experincenced vet attend the stranded whales and decides what to do?
Or is it a wildlife rescuer , who decides this?
Think a vet is more prone to euthanise an animal, that is my personal experience( not from whale strandings).
Of course in cases like this , it is of importance to tagg the animals, to make some stats.
Maybe in the near future there will arise more questions, wether it is better to euthanise whales in the first case????
Ian, I have seen a number of horse rescue stories where a positive outcome was no guarantee.
“It is all about narcissism, the feel good posturing of the rescuers while the whales continue to suffer.”
Many, many members of the public demand that something be done to save the whales when there is a stranding event. I have been at a number of strandings where when the animals were euthansed the public were less than friendly to deal with.
Ian I gather you have never attended a whale stranding.
Ann, there are usually vets in attendance to euthanase the animals, and those involved in whale stradings in Australia undergo comprehensive training. In Tasmania there is a whale stranding team. Yes, they do other things as well, but they are called upon to attend each stranding. Before release most animals undergo many assessments along the way to see how they are coping.
There are certainly events where it is better to euthanase the animal from the start, eg. many single strandings of toothed whales/dolphins, calves separated from mothers or with a severely compromised mother. Knowing when it is time to do this takes experience and a good knowledge of the species involved. Much is learned about marine mammals from each stranding event, including how to handle and treat the animals, rescue techniques as well as information from post mortems.
“Ian I gather you have never attended a whale stranding.”
Sorry Ian, I realise that is an unfair comment for me to make.
The point I would like to make is that it is all well and good for people to make comments on any issue when they are not actually there. We all have an opinion on things, which is human nature. I have been to marine mammal events where I believe there was a positive outcome for the animals, but I have also seen some very upsetting decisions made both by the volunteer rescue organisations and the government and scientific bodies involved. Hopefully we all learn from such experiences.
Ian,
Obviously if the whales are already dead then the sustainability thing is rather mute, but then if say a breeding female of a truely endangered species were stranded, I’d rather some effort be made (or at least thoroughly considered) to refloat her rather than just munching straight on in or letting her die (taking the rest of her species perhaps). Sure this is pretty extreme since a species in such bad shape is likely to go extinct anyway.
To their credit, one of the useful things the hard-core anti-whaling governments such as New Zealand do do at the IWC is share information their expertise in euthanisation. This in itself is a very good thing which I support, although I don’t know whether the IWC is the most suitable venue for it. I’m not sure what sort of international animal welfare forums there are that might be better, however.
I find it rather curious that the whale rescue fraternity do not have something like an elongated above ground swimming pool that could be zipped up under the animal and quickly filled with a standard $500 fire fighting style pump.
It would not even need to be slid under the animal but, instead, simply be tucked under from each side using the whales own weight to stop the water flowing under the plastic lining.
It would work in the direct opposite way to a ships pump in a damaged boat. As long as the pump capacity is greater than the leakage rate then the animal can be maintained in a pool with water level that almost covers it.
This would maintain the right body pressures of the animal while it is being assessed and keep it in better condition until the tide returns.
Another longer “pool” could be filled around the immediate one, or attached to the seaward end of it so the animal, or animals, could then be floated closer to the sea to be released at high tide.
But as I have never been to a stranding, they won’t let me bring my Barbeque, I could be just telling folks how to suck eggs.
Hi Libby,
I really appreciate your elaborate reply, and yes, what is needed is experience from every single case….