Whale stays stuck on sand
Smaller humpback dies despite efforts to rescue pair
Ahumpback whale stranded on a Northland beach remained on the sand for a second night. The smaller of the two whales stuck on sand in the mid-tide zone a couple of kilometres south of Bayly’s Beach died about 7.15am yesterday.
The afternoon attempt to float the 20m whale off the beach at high tide failed and would be tried again today.
All day Sunday and that night, the distressed whales had softly called to each other while lying trapped on the sand.
But as the smaller whale’s moans became less frequent then stopped, the larger one displayed anguished behaviour and, as the life left its stranded companion, it slapped its tail up and down on the sand.
“That’s the last time it made a sound or moved its tail,” Project Jonah co-ordinator Daren Grover said a few hours later as the rescue effort focused on the survivor.
Yesterday’s effort started at dawn. Two diggers carved a trench the size of an Olympic pool around the whale, with a sandbank nearly 3 metres high.
The plan was to breach the wall when the incoming tide was high enough, filling the trench with water deep enough for the whale to float. The idea was it could get to the water and head out to sea.
The whale had been fairly still, but as the wall was breached and the
incoming tide washed around it, it slapped its tail. Two hundred people let out a cheer, but if they expected it to float, then swim down the trench to freedom, they were disappointed.
The water may not have been deep enough, the whale too exhausted or it would not leave the dead one.
Earlier, whale expert Dr Ingrid Visser said the whale’s breathing had been irregular at times but otherwise it was in “pretty good shape”.
There were some concerns the weight of its back muscles and flesh
had compressed its organs for too long. Another major worry was that if it was female, it could be pregnant.
The smaller one’s death had been a huge blow to rescuers and volunteers who spent Sunday night keeping them both wet, hoping the high tide around 4am would float them into the safety of the sea.
But the tide was “soft”, not very high, and didn’t have the depth or heft to shift the whales.
Visser, one of the leaders of the rescue attempt which involved iwi, Project Jonah, Department of Conservation and the public, said the behaviour was typical of marine females.
Sonny Nesbit, Te Roroa Trust chairman, said it was the first rescue of humpbacks he had seen on the 100km-long beach west of Dargaville.
“Last night was clear and it was a sky full of stars, and the whales were both pretty settled.”
It was as if the whales and helpers were waiting for the tide to turn the tragedy around, he said.