EMOTIONAL GOOD-BYE TO BEACHED PILOT WHALES
By J. Brock (FINN)
On Monday a pilot working for the Falkland Islands Air Service (FIGAS) spotted approximately 100 beached Whales 30 km from the open ocean at East Bay and in Philomel Harbour.
Sarah Clement of Falklands Conservation immediately contacted the Military. Within 24 hours, the Military had flown a vet, three from Falklands Conservation and members of the Falkland Islands Defence Force to the site. No one knew when the Pilot Whales were stranded, but by the time help arrived, it was too late to help those Whales that were still alive. The vet quickly assessed the situation and found that none of the 42 Pilot Whales could be re-floated. Added to this, the weight of the Whales out of water caused crush injuries to their internal organs. In this weakened condition the area’s land birds, like Striated Caracara, commonly known as Johnny Rooks, as well as some seabirds, had taken the eyes out of the whales and had begun to peck away at their tongues.
On Thursday morning, FIBS’s Liz Elliot (LE) interviewed Nick Ewen (NE), Darren Christie (DC) and Sarah Clement (SC) of Falklands Conservation. They updated listeners on the situation.
NE: Looking at the configuration of beach, it is that if you wanted to put Whales back into the water and float them, it meant that we would have to drag them in the water about 30 KM to open water. You have a very narrow pass, Philomel Pass, with strong currents, so you would have to drag them past those currents to the open water.
LE: Who went and what happened?
SC: We contacted the Military first of all and they agreed to transport a team the very next morning as soon as possible. That was fantastic because we knew that some of the Whales were still alive and it was very important to get a vet out to the area. He could then assess the situation and see if they were able to be re-floated and, if not, the best course of action to take. We then contacted the vet and he went with an assistant. Two FIDF members went, Darren (Christie) went as well and a scientist from the Fisheries Department also went.
LE: What was the state of the Whales when the team arrived?
DC: It was pretty awful. The problem with Whale stranding is obviously, they are such big, heavy animals, that, unless you get to them very quickly then all their weight, which is supported by the water when they are swimming along normally, crushes them. They had been there probably a couple of days. I know they were seen there on Monday morning but we don’t know how long they had been there. They were in a pretty sorry state. They had lots of internal bleeding and the Johnny Rooks and all the other seabirds had attacked them and taken out their eyes and started on their tongues. It was really sad to see and there wasn’t an awful lot we could do.
LE: What decision was made?
DC: The vet was there to consult and he assessed the state of the Whales. It was decided that the kindest thing we could do for the whales was to put them down. So, the FIDF members had to put them to sleep.
LE: That’s pretty sad. Anything else to be done now?
SC: I think one of the important things to say is to say that when the team arrived that 42 of the Whales were still alive. In all of those 42 Whales, unfortunately, their injuries were quite severe. Because of this, they were put down. Had they not been discovered, these animals could have lived in that state for quite some time. So, although none of them could be re-floated, the ones that were still alive weren’t left to suffer for any great length of time afterwards. They were immediately put down after the vet assessed them. And, I think that’s a very good thing.
LE: It’s sad they hadn’t been discovered a bit sooner. Maybe there might have been a chance for some of them to survive.
SC: Unfortunately, because of the location, and a lot of locations in the Falklands with the remoteness, with mass stranding, it’s very difficult to get there in time and for these animals to be seen. We would like to express our thanks to FIGAS for keeping their eyes open. They have been superb in the past and they have been really great on Monday. We would really like to say a big thank-you to them because they are our eyes sometimes in certain areas in the Falklands.
NE: One of the things that are evident is that when we talk to the Marine Mammal Medics from the UK. They came last year to train us. They got into contact with us and showed us the best way to put down a marine mammal. At the same time, they were saying that, even in the UK, 90% of the Whales stranded there, the best course of action is to put down the animal. They can only be re-floated in 10% of the cases. And, if you count the number of people who live in the UK compared to here, the chance of them finding them pretty fast is better than here. If they can be re-floated then it is done but if they cannot, the best course of action is to put them out of their misery as fast as possible.
SC: I think that the quick response of everybody involved really helped the situation because that limited the time that these animals were left to suffer. One of the other things that was managed to be carried out is that the scientist, Andy Stocks, from the Fisheries Department, went along and managed to get over 50 samples from the whales afterwards and this information is really invaluable.
NE: And they are planning to go back over the next weekend to measure all of the Whales and to assess the male to female ratio of the pod. At the same time, they will take teeth to assess the age of each individual. Scientists will also be collecting blubber samples for genetic studies later on.
LE: Do you have any idea why they have come up on the beach?
SC: There are lots of different theories. Some people think that it’s because they send out electrical signals. They send them to find out if anything is in front of them. If they strand on a beach, which is a gradual slope, then they may send out signals and haven’t received the signals back because they bounced up. They think they are in the same depth of water but in actual fact, they are heading straight up a beach. Another theory is that electrical storms can interfere with their system of finding out the depth of water. There was a storm on Saturday night and this possibly could have been one of the reasons. Another theory is that because there is a large group of animals in a confined area and sending out signals, it’s very difficult to find their way back out again. There are lots of theories but no one knows. If we did know, we might be able to do something.
DC: What makes Pilot Whales particularly difficult is the fact that they are very social animals and they swim around in a pod. They tend to follow a matriarch, the leader of the pod. You can’t just take an individual out and re-float it. They tend to re-beach themselves.
SC: Unless you can find the actual matriarch and re-float her and then, the rest of them around about the same time. Unless you put them all back in the water together, the likelihood is that they will keep re-beaching. It’s one of those awful things that they tend to do. To re-float them, you need four people per Whale. Had the 42 whales been fit and healthy, we would have tried our hardest. It’s very difficult in remote areas where this happens, to try and get that many people out and deal with that sort of situation.
Sarah Clement went on to thank the Military, for the helicopter trip, Fisheries Department for allowing Andy Stocks to go along, Darren Christie, who had just got off the Air Bus and the FIDF members, Adam Cockwell and Allan Webb. Thanks also went to Kevin Lawrence the vet and Sue, the Assistant, as well as FIGAS. Finally, to Andy Findlay, who lives in the area, thanks for all his help.
(100X Transcription Service)
