Kampf der Wale
31.03.09
Mental and physical exhaustion is what I still kind of suffer from and what, at first, I could not quite identify. At first you don’t realize how it really touches you inside and how much of yourself you invest. It’s a strange process… you see, you analyze and you act… there is not much time to think or feel. Nevertheless it is a lot for your body and mind to process and it’s only later that you can begin to reflect on the details.
What I am talking about? I would call it a test spiritual journey that came to me in form of a mass whale beaching last week. A battle of the whales between life and death and the fight of the volunteers for every heavy breathe of these beautiful giants that came with it. Because I felt so helpless in the beginning and had no idea what to do to help and not harm the whales, I would like to share this experience with you in case you ever (hopefully never!) get into a situation like this.
On early Monday morning about 80 Long finned Pilot Whales beached in Hamelin Bay/Western Australia, only half an hour away from our winter domicile. When a tourist found the poor animals the news spread quickly through the radio and when we heard about it through a friend we immediately grabbed our wetsuits, some towels and buckets and got to the beach as quickly as we could. When we got there it looked like a public festival… big tents with showers, changing rooms and registration desks and heaps of portable toilets as well as food tents were all set up. When I saw all this infrastructure I knew this was going to be a long and serious mission.
We headed straight towards the beach, registered as volunteers and then got a ride down the beach to where the whales were stranded. On our way to our operation area we drove past 18 dead whales all lying on the beach and it just seemed surreal. We did not really have time to think about them because all we were focused on now was getting to the whales that were still alive and keeping them that way. We got a quick lesson in whale caring and even though in the beginning it is probably normal to be kind of awkward with them, you quickly learn what they need and how they react to things.
Here’s a quick whale rescue lesson for anyone that ever needs to know:
- Keep whales wet at all times, especially focus on dorsal fin and head as these parts get hot very quickly which will lead to the whale overheating. Whales are used to swimming in cold waters and need to stay cool.
- They have some sensitive areas around the eyes and close to their tale. Don’t touch these areas and also don’t step on their fins as this could hurt the whales.
- Whales don’t like to lie on their side as it can cause them to stop breathing so make sure they are upright on their belly!
- In most cases it is necessary to bring whales in a stable position on the beach first to then be able to release them in safer (deeper) waters. However, it is really tough for whales to lie on the beach as they are extremely heavy and not only is the danger of overheating high, but they also have to carry all their weight on the hard sand.
- Talking and singing to them in a reassuring way has been proven to have a good reaction on whales and calms them down.
- Do not breath in their breath from their blow hole as they are mammals and can transfer contagious diseases to humans.
Taking care of all these points we secured the whales in the water first, keeping them upright and able to breathe as they were so tired from being swept up onto the beach.
Then, using huge slings, we dragged them up onto the beach where they were taken closer to the entrance of the beach where they were going to be kept for the night and then taken to another bay with deeper waters by crane and truck in the morning. Only 13 whales were still alive at this point and everyone was fighting hard for their lives…
The night and the following day were exhausting for whales and volunteers. Endless runs up and down the beach to carry water for the gentle giants and one heavy breath from the whales after the next… minute after minute, hour after hour… shifts were taken, heater lamps used for occasional warming up and everyone caught a few hours of sleep to be ready for the next day. Even with all the effort we lost 2 whales during the night and tears were shed for them while trying to save the others.
At 9 o’clock the next morning machinery and trucks were ready for transport and now one whale after the other were brought to flinders bay where again volunteers were ready to hold them in slings in the water until the last whale arrived so they could be released together as a group. This took 5 long hours in which we worried about these whales still lying on the beach waiting to be transported.
The excitement was overwhelming when finally all the whales were at flinders bay and only minutes later we released them in a huge group effort and lots of cheering (also to chase them off into deep waters) which was a very heartbreaking moment for me – it got even more heartbreaking though when we realized that the whales were so tired they did not seem to swim off together…
But from this point on the “water-crew” took over… canoes, zodiacs, surfers and SUPers were trying their best to lead them out to sea and everybody else could not do much else then to go home and get some well deserved sleep. Obviously each and every one of us hoped that our new friends would be fine and make it all right and our fingers were crossed hard.
Over the next 2 days one horrible news after the other came in… 4 of the whales had re-beached and died just a few km down the beach of flinders bay where we had released them. Then the next day 2 more had beached again at the same spot where they were first found and also died. 3 other whales were still being followed by a boat and seemed very tired and were not given much hope to survive… Each news brought pain and sadness and the question “why” with it. And for each surviving whale the hope was still kept up and prayed for and we still hope that 2 of them made it out into the big wide ocean…
And now? Well, life must go on! After we talked about our feelings and pains between each other and after being sure that we would, no matter how big the success was, always do the same thing and do our best to help.
After all this I still somehow managed to get everything ready in time to leave to Egypt for a photo shoot, so only 3 days later I find myself sitting on an Emirates flight listening to sounds of the Whales on one of the entertainment radio programs… in awe with these beautiful, beautiful animals that don’t have the easiest time out there in the ocean with humans around and all the pollution we create… my thoughts are with them.
