Killing whales 'best option'
2009-05-31 12:30
Johannesburg - Attempts to rescue a pod of stranded false killer whales on Kommetjie Beach in the Western Cape ended with 44 of the mammals being euthanised, a government scientist said on Sunday.
"We euthanised 42, and another two were euthanised during the night," said Marine and Coastal Management scientist Mike Meyer.
"Our biggest problem was that we've had one of the worst climates on the day. There were big swells. If we'd had better weather we could have been much more successful."
Nan Rice, head of the Dolphin Action and Protection group said "rehabilitating" the animals in those weather conditions proved impossible.
Rehabilitating involved moving the whales into deep, calm water and rocking them until they could swim away on their own.
"It's physiotherapy," said Rice.
Fifty-five whales began beaching around 07:30 on Saturday.
'Stranded again'
Initial hopes that 20 of the whales had been rescued were dashed when it was discovered that they were swimming out only to strand themselves again.
"I don't think any got out from what I can gather. They went further down the beach and got stranded again."
Rice said the decision to euthanise the whales was only taken after it became clear the animals would not be able to survive the night on the beach.
"They were weakening already. The animals wouldn't have been able to swim out.
"The fact of the matter is that during the night, you probably would have people coming out of the bush to cut big chunks out of them. And we couldn't have people posted there all night because of the weather."
She lashed out at public criticism of the decision to euthanise, as well as her organisation's handling of the stranded whales.
"They should be praising. I think it's disgusting. It makes me sick. You can't be sentimental, you have to be serious.
'Euthanisation was quick'
"I've seen it [the euthanisation]. It's quick. The bullet goes straight through the brain and the whale dies in a few seconds. But they [the public] get hysterical and start acting like prima donnas and throw themselves on the beach and have to be carried away by the police.
"All over the world it's a struggle to get these animals back. If the weather had been calm, we could have saved many animals. What could you do? We had to work out a plan."
Rice added that criticism of her organisation's response time to the stranded whales was unfair.
"Now there's all this criticism that we weren't prepared. How could we know where these whales would strand?
Said Meyer: "The beach was a disaster area as matter of fact. The amount of organisation, the amount of people who need to be contacted, it does take time."
'Onlookers hindered rescue attempt'
Meyer and Rice both said that onlookers and untrained volunteers hindered the organised rescue attempt.
"I have spent so much time training volunteers and all those volunteers knew what to do. But this enormous influx of people coming to the beach, all running around with children and barking dogs?"
According to Meyer: "Some media were saying 'go out and help the whales', which might have been a good thing, but by the end it made things impossible."
Because of the large numbers of onlookers, road traffic was completely stalled along the beach.
"We could not control that length of the beach. We couldn't have moved anything in or out. Our rescue people had trouble getting close because of the number of people," said Meyer.
Rice said scientists would probably take samples from the dead whales, examine their teeth to determine their ages and look at their stomach contents. The city of Cape Town would then take the carcasses to a landfill.
- SAPA