14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, the news broke that a total of 51 short-finned pilot whales had become stranded in the Everglades National Park in Florida, US. Recent news on the topic says that, although some of them have died, the rest of the pod might yet have a chance at survival.
This past Thursday, rescuers and wildlife researchers returned to the Everglades to see what had happened to the whales.
According to LA Times, they found the dead body of one of them. The others, on the other hand, were no longer in the shallow waters where they were stranded the day before.
By the looks of it, the marine mammals had somehow managed to work their way to somewhat deeper water. Hence, wildlife researchers are growing confident that the pilot whales will eventually make it all the way back to the ocean.
“We are encouraged and hopeful, but there's no guarantee they will continue to move offshore,” Blair Mase with NOAA reportedly said in a statement. Furthermore, “The mood is a lot more optimistic.”
Specialists estimate that the waters in which the whales are now swimming are about 12 feet (3.65 meters) deep. The marine mammals were found 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) north of the place where they were last seen on Wednesday.
To boost their chances to get back to the ocean, rescuers have been struggling to keep them from returning to shallow waters.
As previously reported, 10 of the 51 short-finned pilot whales that became stranded in the Everglades died on Wednesday. 6 of them passed away due to natural causes, whereas the other 4 had to be euthanized because they were in very poor condition.
Of the 41 remaining whales, one was found dead yesterday. 5 are still uncounted for, and the remaining 35 are the ones that wildlife researchers hope will be successfully returned to the ocean.
Specialists are not yet sure what caused the whales to leave the ocean and enter the Everglades National Park. They plan to carry out a thorough investigation, and hope that they will soon have an answer to this question.