Posted on Tuesday, 05.10.11
From The Miami Herald
SOUTH FLORIDA
Five stranded pilot whales delivered to Key Largo rehab facility
Florida Keys Keynoter
The five survivors of Thursday's pilot whale stranding off Cudjoe Key arrived early Tuesday at Key Largo's Marine Mammal Conservancy, where the next stage of their rehabilitation will begin.
MMC's Robert Lingenfelser said the goal there will be to get the whales healthy enough to return them to the wild, like the two podmates released in deep Atlantic waters on Saturday. There's no timeline for that, and no guarantees.
The marine mammal group is seeking volunteers to help with the whales at its facility. Volunteers work in four-hour shifts. Interested people should call (305) 451-4774.
The move began shortly before 3 a.m. down on Cudjoe. It took a crane and lots of muscle to transfer the mammals at low tide from the sea pen, where they've been since at least early Friday morning, and into a 48-foot refrigerated truck from Publix.
NOAA spokeswoman Karrie Carnes said the move was timed so the whales' feeding and medication schedules wouldn't be interrupted. Nevertheless, the move would be a stressful one for the whales. There were vets and husbandry folks aboard the truck to monitor their conditions and keep them wet.
Staging for the move started Monday night. Once the transfer started, it took just a little over an hour.
The five mammals weigh from 600 pounds to nearly 1,800 pounds each and are 8.9 feet to 13 feet long. The four females and five males were loaded starting with the smallest, a calf.
Marine mammal rescuers, with the help of at least 10 Key West-based U.S. Navy Seabees, loaded each animal into a stretcher and carried all but one from the water to the back of the truck, where the crane helped lift it up so it could be pulled in to rest on a foam pad. It took at least a dozen men to move each whale.
When it came time to load the large male, the crane swung to water's edge, where it was hooked to his stretcher to bridge the 100-or-so foot distance from the water to the truck. Even with the crane's help, it took lots of hands to boost him into the back.
As soon as he was settled in and the truck door came down, the assembled crowd of mostly volunteers erupted into applause. The truck headed up Blimp Road toward U.S. 1, and the remaining skeleton crew of volunteers started to pack up.
Two of seven pilot whales that survived a mass stranding Thursday off Cudjoe Key were released late Saturday afternoon in the Atlantic Ocean. The release from a barge happened in about 530 feet of water nine miles offshore.
Five other whales remain at the end of Blimp Road in a sea pen, where they receive around-the-clock care from a host of experts and volunteers. Saturday's release buoyed the spirits of the dozens of people working tirelessly on scene at the end of Blimp Road.
Better news came Sunday, when the Chicago Zoological Society reported that the satellite tags placed on the two showed they were in the Straits of Florida, headed north to the Gulf Stream, NOAA's Karrie Carnes said. The society's Randy Wells, who works out of Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, came down over the weekend to place the tags.
Two of the remaining whales were classified Monday as critical, and the other three as guarded. They were receiving broad-spectrum antibiotics, hydration and either a vitamin-rich milk substitute or a calorie-rich fish gruel.
The death toll from the stranding rose to 14 over the weekend, after an FWC boat found a dead whale in Bow Channel late in the afternoon. Aerial surveillance Saturday saw no more signs of whales, Carnes said.
Keys Sunday Editor Karen Quist, Senior Staff Writer Kevin Wadlow and Keynoter Editor Larry Kahn contributed to this report.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/10/2209780/five-stranded-pilot-whales-head.html#ixzz1MAKaOMPf
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| Stranded Pilot Whales |
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| Volunteers work around the clock to try and save the stranded whales |
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