14 DAY TRIAL // This past Sunday, a pod made up of 19 pilot whales was discovered on Noordhoek Beach in Cape Town. Despite efforts to save them, only 2 of the animals ultimately survived the beaching.
The people in charge of the rescue operation explain that five of them passed away of natural causes before anyone had a chance to do anything to keep this from happening.
Nine other pilot whales had to be humanly put to sleep, simply because their poor health would have made any rescue attempts futile, sources say.
At that time, local officials and conservationists succeeded in keeping five of the whales alive and breathing with the help of hoses, which they used to pour water on the animals.
“Whales were assisted with wet blankets which were continuously doused with water to keep them cool and alive and attempts were made to reduce stress,” explained Tom Coetzee, NSRI (National Sea Rescue Institute) Kommetjie station commander.
Later on, they used boats to carry the animals back at sea, and hoped that, once there, the pilot whales would start feeling better and swim away.
“Five were loaded onto trailers and trucks and transported to the SA Naval Dockyard in Simon’s Town and transported to sea by two SA Navy tug boats and released.”
“All five were released in calm seas in False Bay. They were followed after being released and appeared to be swimming along strongly,” Tom Coetzee told members of the press.
Unfortunately, the National Sea Rescue Institute reports that, not long after being released back into the wild, three of these five rescued pilot whales re-beached in Simon's Town.
When faced with this situation, conservationists and wildlife specialists agreed that it would be best to euthanize these marine mammals as well.
For the time being, the local coastline is being closely monitored in order to make sure that measures are immediately taken should the remaining two pilot whales also re-beach.
Wildlife researchers are yet to figure out what caused the whales to come ashore.