Stranded whales require team response
You wanted to know
"What happens when a whale washes up on the shore and doesn't get back in the water soon?" asked a young library patron at Schaumburg Township District Library's "Dig a Shark Tooth" class.
A mother humpback whale and her calf took a wrong turn from their coastal California ocean home and found themselves heading into the Sacramento River, past boaters and commercial shipping traffic.
Sarah Wilkin, Emergency Response Team coordinator and biologist for the U.S. Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program, needed to think quickly to figure out ways to coax the two safely back to their salty ocean home.
"It's incredibly difficult when they're free-swimming. We employ deterrents to try to convince them to swim in the opposite direction. We used fire hoses and creative thinking, trying to come up with safe strategies," Wilkin said. "It was almost two weeks. We still try to figure out new ways to help - that's part of the benefits and challenges of the job."
Sounds from tug boats most likely encouraged the pair to retreat.
The Stranding Response Program, a lead agency under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, responds to marine mammal strandings and deaths through a public-private collaboration that stretches across all U.S. shores, including the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, and coasts along Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and Guam.
"NOAA has authorization agreements with partners around the U.S., and each partner covers a stretch of coastline, about 100 partners in total, all from different backgrounds like zoos, aquaria, museums, government agencies, not-for-profits," Wilkin said.
NOAA estimates it responds to an average 250 whale strandings each year. For the period of 2001-2009, there were 52,649 stranded marine mammals.
Partner organizations will respond if the animal is alive and needs to be rescued or if the animal is dead. If the animal requires care before being returned to its ocean home, NOAA also has 32 affiliated organizations that can rehabilitate sick or wounded animals.
A result of the 1992 Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Stranding Response Program also conducts biomonitoring to assess animal and environmental health, and maintains a tissue bank so researchers can look for contaminants or other causes for death.
Wilkin was on the ground during the massive Deep Water Horizon oil spill along the Gulf Coast and at other key rescue events.
Her job requires her to constantly weigh the balance between the animal's safety and maintaining safety for people who live and recreate along the coasts. A long list of reasons why animals might land on the beach, including old age, pollutants, excessive noise, collisions with vessels or net entanglement, disease, parasites and injuries, drive the Stranding Response Program participants to collaborate and develop plans to minimize hazards for animals and people.
"We work together to make global assumptions and share information to develop best practices and protocol," Wilkin said.
A recent public information campaign, #SharetheShore, is a response to the explosive interest in selfies that draw people into dangerous proximity with wild marine animals. The campaign brings attention to the dangers of trying to snap the perfect photo with an adorable baby seal when the mother seal could lurch into action and use her powerful jaws to protect her pups.
A big problem is when a dead whale washes onto a beach - a 50-ton or bigger problem.
July Fourth at the old whaling town of Edgartown, on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, dawned with a 50-foot, decomposed fin whale lodged on one of the town's beaches. Jane Varkonda, village conservation agent, led the cleanup actions.
Dead animals are an immediate health risk because they generate harmful bacteria and can carry diseases that can pass from animals to humans. They also are a draw for sharks, and must be removed quickly. The beach was closed while cleanup operations moved into high gear.
"Sometimes, remains of the whale are taken to a landfill if you are unable to float it back out to sea," Varkonda said. "We were lucky with how decomposed it was that it went off in one piece.
"You need a talented boat captain who can maneuver close to shore, a talented heavy equipment operator who can pick up a piece of whale jaw so that the harbor master can tie a line to the bone, and they gently pull/push the whale carcass off shore. In this case, they took her 17 miles off shore so that she does not wash up on some other beach nearby."
Check it out
The Schaumburg Township District Library suggests these titles on whales:
• "Whales and Dolphins," by J.I. Anderson
• "Whales," by Sophia Lockwood
• "Whales! Strange and Wonderful," by Laurence Pringle
• "Sea Mammals," by Rebecca Stefoff
• "Sea Life Scientist," by Lisa Thompson