Freeing Willy: Learning to save whales in a global stranding hotspot
Friday, 8 January 2021
Three hundred whales and dolphins strand on New Zealand beaches every year, while 400 caring Kiwis learn how to save them. AMBER ALLOTT reports.
On a not-so sunny Saturday at Christchurch’s popular Sumner Beach, a dozen wetsuit-clad trainees sloshed into the still, grey water.
A two-tonne giant lies in wait in the shallows. It's a life-sized model of a pilot whale, affectionately nicknamed PJ.
Our job today is to get her buoyant – suspended in the sea on a custom-made pontoon.
On the shore, her little blue companion waits in the sand. Weighing in at 150 kilograms, Fin the dolphin is attended to by a second group of volunteers.
**READ MORE:
* Dead whale towed to Farewell Spit tidal flats to decompose
* Dead 17-metre, 30 tonne beached whale near Farewell Spit to be refloated, towed out at high tide
* Project Jonah to bring whale rescue training course to Timaru
**
They are learning dolphin first aid, wrapping him carefully in sheets and gently pouring buckets of water along his back, before digging trenches in the sand so there is room for his pectoral fins to hang free. They later work a dolphin mat underneath him, and carry him back to the sea.
The efforts are part of Project Jonah's annual marine mammal medic training courses.
New Zealand is a hotspot for marine mammal strandings, which are managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC).
Since 1840, more than 5000 strandings have been recorded over almost every inch of the country’s coastline. About 300 whales and dolphins become trapped every year.
Anti-whaling lobby group turned registered charity Project Jonah is usually called in to help too. Members, most of them volunteers, have been saving whales since 1974.
Louisa Hawkes is one of Project Jonah’s two full-time staff members, and has been with the organisation for almost nine years.
“I manage all sorts of things … running Project Jonah’s social media, training volunteers, responding to strandings, fundraising.”
Hawkes has attended more than 20 strandings herself, and helped coordinate well over a hundred over the phone.
But strandings aren’t always successful, which is why Project Jonah only recommends attending if volunteers are in a good mental space.
“In 2018 I attended a stranding in Dargaville with two humpback whales, a mother and a calf. The calf passed away on the second day and the mother refused to refloat, even when there was enough water.
“It really showed the strength of the bond between them, they were a family.”
The mother's condition deteriorated, and she had to be euthanised the next day.
“It broke my heart. I sat with her for four hours beforehand, as her breathing slowed.
“I was just cleaning her eyes. Even being able to take care of that one thing … there was a real connection. It was a privilege.”
This sort of situation isn’t uncommon – as we learned during the course – as the ties that bind are particularly strong for whales.
It’s believed to be one of the driving factors behind mass strandings of species like the long-finned pilot whale.
Two New Zealand top the list of the biggest strandings in the world.
More than 1000 whales washed ashore in the Chatham Islands in 1918, and in 2017 about 600 stranded on Farewell Spit.
“One gets into distress, and it calls out to its family. They then race in to try and help,” Hawkes says.
“You can often tell at mass strandings which whale got trapped first, because they’ll be lying in a V pattern around it.”
Individuals who have been refloated must be released at the same time too, otherwise there is a good chance they will go back for their families.
No-one really knows why whales strand.
Hawkes says they sometimes just make navigational mistakes while hunting, and sometimes they are just old, or sick, or infested with brain parasites.
The most important things helpers can do is try to keep them cool, calm and comfortable, while the professionals figure out what is wrong with them.
Whales overheat easily, but can be kept cool with light-coloured towels or sheets, carefully arranged to leave the fins, eyes and blowhole exposed.
Buckets of water should be gently tipped over them, with special attention paid to the fins.
To keep them comfortable, holes can be dug by hand in the sand so their “surprisingly delicate” pectoral fins can hang free.
To keep them calm, surround them with quiet, and avoid standing in front of the heads of species who use echolocation.
The endeavour is not without risk for people either.
“A whale can typically lift its tail high in the air – around half the length of its body – and the muscles are incredibly powerful. People who’ve made the mistake of standing over their tails have been sent flying,” Hawkes says.
People working near the animals, especially while refloating, are encouraged to get on their knees for more stability.
“If you’re standing up next to one and it rolls onto your legs, you’ll fall over. These guys weigh tonnes, and you don’t want to be pinned underwater by that,” she says.
The most common problem that arises during a rescue, however, is hypothermia.
“We’ve always got a thermos of hot, sweet tea … but they [DOC] basically won’t even let people on the beach any more unless they’re wearing a wetsuit.”
Strandings don’t always end triumphantly, watching a newly-refloated whale swim into the sunset.
As Hawkes tells the class, many incidents end with the whale’s death, which is why they don’t recommend volunteers attend if they are not in a good place mentally.
One of the most confronting moments in the course is watching a video of a DOC ranger euthanising a pilot whale. In New Zealand, this is done by firing a bullet into the base of its skull.
It is almost a given that everybody taking a course on saving stranded whales is there because they love them, but Hawkes says it is important to be prepared for the worst.
In the video, the whale jerks and spasms after it has been shot. When she saw a sperm whale put down, Hawkes says it was like its whole body relaxed all at once.
Project Jonah general manager Daren Grover says although Canterbury isn’t a hotspot like Farewell Spit, Whangerei, Hawke’s Bay or the Chatham Islands, the region has its fair share of strandings.
“There’s more going on than people realise. We get called to about one event a month in Canterbury, but most are already dead, so they don’t make the news.”
One of the most high profile strandings he can remember happened on Banks Peninsula 10 years ago.
“Around 60 pilot whales ran aground at Port Levy. With help from locals, around 40 of them were able to be refloated.”
Three years ago, a pod of false killer whales almost stranded in Akaroa, but they managed to make a lucky escape.
“Two did end up getting stuck in New Brighton, and one unfortunately died. We ended up successfully refloating the second, in front of a crowd of thousands who came down to the beach to take a look.”
The second stranding DOC has in its records was in Canterbury in 1846, when an Annoux’s beaked whale washed ashore near Akaroa.
Between then and 2015, about 348 whales and dolphins have stranded in the region, with the 2010 Port Levy stranding the biggest.
“Just like human first aid, we hope people who do the training course will never have to use the skills in real life, but given New Zealand’s stranding history it’s highly likely that they will,” Hawkes says.
More volunteers, from all parts of the country, are always needed.
“With one of the highest stranding rates in the world, for us, it’s a matter of when, not if the next stranding will occur,” she says.
“The more people we have trained up with the knowledge on how to make a difference, the greater the chance we can help otherwise healthy whales back into the ocean, to hopefully live long lives.”
WHO TO CALL:
Members of the public who stumble across a marine mammal in distress can call Project Jonah’s 24-hour hotline on 0800 4 WHALE (0800 4 94253), or DOC’s hotline on 0800 DOC HOT (0800 362 468).
Project Jonah advises that if all else fails, people can call 111 and inform police.