HELP AT HAND:Steve Hay, from left, Robert Carson-Iles and Emma Coleman gently rock a stranded bottlenose dolphin at Caroline Bay.

June 17^th, 2013. A young bottlenose dolphin has been put down despite a rescue attempt on Caroline Bay.

Staff from the Department of Conservation (DOC), police, Timaru District Council, Environment Canterbury (ECan) and members of public were involved after it was retrieved from the beach about 11am.

DOC staff said the dolphin first stranded yesterday at Patiti Point.

DOC community relations ranger George Iles said rescuers rocked the dolphin for an hour on Sunday to help it re-establish a sense of balance, then took it from the water and trucked it to the Timaru Yacht and Power Boat Club slipway where it was re-floated and sent on its way.

He said the dolphin intially appeared well nourished and in good condition (Ndlr Sibylline : that’s why an hospitalization would have been possible ; euthanasia is not a solution, it is simply the easiest way, the one, which does not complicate life, nothing else…).

”The dolphin was carried down to the sea on a tarpaulin, but because the sea was so rough and dangerous, it was decided to take the dolphin round to the sheltered water at the yacht club.”

After one hour, the dolphin was released and swam into Caroline Bay about 4pm. ”Unfortunately despite all the help from the community the dolphin stranded again on Caroline Bay.”

Mr Iles said the dolphin kept rolling over and was in bad condition during the second rescue attempt this morning.

It was about 1.5 metres long, a juvenile, he said.

”When they are born they are between 85 centimetres and 1.3 m. They are suckled by their mothers for up to three years.”

He thanked all those involved in the rescue attempt. ”We really appreciate the support and involvement from the community.”

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A minke whale calf beached itself in Gorleston. Photo : Zak Leavold

Monday, June 17, 2013 (Sam Russell). Dog-walkers, late evening strollers and emergency services teamed up in a desperate bid to send the confused young minke whale back to sea.

It was stranded on Gorleston’s golden sands on Saturday night, near to the Ocean Room, after previously coming ashore further down the coast.

Humber Coastguard was called at 8.55pm with teams from Gorleston and Lowestoft paged to the scene, and an army of marine experts, council officers and even police joined members of the public on the beach.

After a concerted effort they managed to re-float it.

But when the whale beached itself again it became apparent that it could not survive on its own.

Out-of-hours vet Zak Leavold was called at 1.30am on Sunday and had to put the whale to sleep.

And on Sunday morning, beach-goers were met with the unusual sight of a whale being transported by JCB – before it is taken to London’s Natural History Museum for tests.

Darren Gook, marine biologist at Great Yarmouth Sealife Centre, said it is most likely that the whale got separated from its mother, “meandered off course, got confused and ended up where it shouldn’t be”.

Vet Mr Leavold, who is clinical director at Gorleston and Lowestoft- based Veterinary Hospital, is more used to dealing with cats and dogs.

He told the EDP: “I got a call at 1.30am and they said to me that they had this whale that they had been battling with to get out to sea – a newborn whale.

“But unfortunately it wasn’t going out to sea.

“I had no experience in marine animals – we’re a small animal veterinary practice – so I made a call to someone with experience then headed out with the veterinary nurse.” (Ndlr Sibylline : thanks for recognizing it, this humility isn’t always usual from traditional practicioners (current practice) in such situations and it shows how the marine mammals management is considered by authorities normally responsible of the Environmental Heritage).

He reached Gorleston beach at around 2.30am and found people holding the whale up with buoyancy aids.

And as a group they decided that the kindest thing to do was to put the whale down with an injection.

“Unfortunately we had to put it to sleep to stop it from suffering and drying up on land, which would be horrible for it,” said Mr Leavold. “The whale was quite stressed by that point.”

It was injected at around 3am.

Richard Atkins, 58, of Pavilion Road, Gorleston, is one of the people who had been trying to save the whale.

He described laying towels underneath it, and his partner’s 15-year-old son James Allinson had sprinted home to get his wet-suit so he could go in the sea and help the whale.

“Lots of people dotted in and out to help but we thought what the heck and stayed,” said Mr Atkins.

“We were getting wet and cold with our shoes in the water.”

The pair and Mr Atkins’ son Chris, 32, had spotted the whale while taking their dog for a run at around 10pm and stayed until gone midnight.

Dan Goldsmith, of the Seal and Bird Rescue Trust at Bacton, said they had hoped to put the whale out of its misery much sooner, but tracking down available marine experts late at night proved difficult.

And he hailed members of the public for helping keep the whale as “comfortable” as possible.

The whale had been spotted earlier beached south of Gorleston, near Pleasurewood Hills.

Kevin Trent, of London, had pulled his car over to enjoy the sea view when his daughter Jordan, 18, spotted the whale at around 7pm.

“We got it back in the water and it swam off and we thought we had saved a whale,” said Mr Trent. “It did take off and we could see it going deep enough but following the coast towards Yarmouth.

“It was such a beautiful whale as well.”

The whale was almost 3m long and weighed around 300 kilos (fully grown minke whales measure up to 8m and weigh up to 10 tonnes).

Environmental health officers at the borough council liaised with local firms to track down a JCB and a truck to move the whale at around 10am yesterday.

It will be kept in storage until experts from London’s Natural History Museum collect it to conduct post-mortem examinations.

Mike Puplett, watch manager at Humber coastguard, said the whale was first reported to them at 8.55pm on Saturday, with the caller stating it was a dolphin.

And scores of people were involved in the rescue effort, including three staff from Hunstanton Sealife Sanctuary, two medics from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue team, Bacton Seal and Bird Rescue, Lowestoft and Gorleston coastguard, the RSPCA, police and members of the public.

Lorraine Leggett, who helped in the rescue effort with her family, said : “It was very sad to see this poor animal in distress.

“It was something we needed to try to help with.”

A Minke whale calf washed up on Gorleston beach. Staff from Hunstanton Sealife Sancturary tried to save it.

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Stranded No More comment :

A massive container vessel which snapped into two and sank off Yemen on Monday. Indian Coast Guard (ICG) Mumbai, coordinated operations to help rescue 26 sailors from the vessel. The tragedy occurred around 200 nautical miles from Yemen, and around 840 nautical miles west of Mumbai. PTI Photo

Mon Jun 17 2013. A Singapore-bound merchant vessel from Jeddah split into two around 840 nautical miles off the coast here today causing oil spill even as all the crew members were rescued, Coast Guard officials said.

‘Mol Comfort’, the 316-m-long vessel was carrying 4,500 containers from Saudi Arabia, they said.

“The vessel hull broke into two off the Mumbai coast and the crew members were rescued from the ship in two life rafts and a life boat,” a Coast Guard official said.

The cause behind the incident was yet to be ascertained. It was also not known what the ship was transporting.

The Coast Guard coordinated the rescue operation and all the 26 members of the crew— 12 Russians and 14 Filipinos– were rescued.

The officials said that the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, Mumbai diverted three ships – MV Hanjin Bejing, MV Zim India and MV Yantian Express, which were travelling nearby, for the rescue operation.

The rescued crew members are being sent to Colombo, they said.

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Whalers cut open and inspect a 35-tonne fin whale caught off the coast of Hvalfjsrour, on June 19, 2009 (AFP/File, Halldor Kolbeins)

June 17^th, 2013. REYKJAVIK — Iceland has resumed its disputed commercial fin whale hunt, with two vessels en route to catch this season’s quota of at least 154 whales, Icelandic media reported on Monday.

An international website that tracks vessels showed two Icelandic whaling ships, Hvalur 8 and Hvalur 9, well west of Iceland on their way to whaling areas, while national media said the two ships left port late Sunday.

Hvalur, the only company that hunts the giant mammals, was unavailable for comment on Monday, which was a public holiday in Iceland.

Hvalur killed 148 fin whales in 2010, but none in 2011 and 2012 due to the disintegration of its only market in quake- and tsunami-hit Japan.

In May, the company said this year’s quota had been set at 154 fin whales, with the possible addition of some 20 percent from last year that were never hunted.

Fin whales are the second largest whale species after the blue whale.

Iceland also hunts minke whales, a smaller species. That hunt began in May, and so far seven minke whales have been harpooned, whaling officials said.

The International Whaling Commission imposed a global moratorium on whaling in 1986 amid alarm at the declining stock of the marine mammals.

Iceland, which resumed commercial whaling in 2006, and Norway are the only two countries still openly practising commercial whaling in defiance of the moratorium.

Japan also hunts whales but insists this is only for scientific purposes even if most of the meat ends up on the market for consumption.

In 2011, the United States threatened Iceland with economic sanctions over its commercial whaling, accusing the country of undermining international efforts to preserve the ocean giants.

But President Barack Obama stopped short of sanctions, instead urging Reykjavik to halt the practice.

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June 17th, 2013 (Kaitlyn Offer). TWO entangled whales were rescued off WA’s coast at the weekend, saved with the help of the public.

The Department of Environment and Conservation has thanked the public for their help, highlighting the important role the community played in locating and monitoring entangled whales.

DEC’s Large Whale Disentanglement Response Team Leader Doug Coughran said with help from the public, the DEC successfully disentangled a 10m humpback whale off Two Rocks on Saturday.

A second operation was attempted late yesterday afternoon to help a humpback whale sighted off City Beach but the whale could not be located before nightfall.

A commercial fisherman reported the sub-adult whale on Saturday and a private boat owner reported the whale on Sunday.

The fisherman at Two Rocks remained on site until DEC arrived. The whale had heavy ropes and several floats wrapped tightly around its body and tail.

“DEC would not have found the whale had the fisherman not stayed with the whale, which can be difficult depending on weather and fuel,” he said.

“The Two Rocks Sea Rescue also played a pivotal role in Saturday’s operation ensuring that the DEC team were able to reach the whale, satellite tag it and then disentangle the fishing debris wrapped tightly around its tail.”

Mr Coughran said the sighting over the weekend brought the number of whales that had been spotted entangled off the State’s south-west coast to eight since they began their northern migration from the Antarctic in late March.

“This was the first whale this season that DEC has been able to reach and disentangle,” he said.

“Previous sightings were located a significant distance off the coast or bad weather hampered rescue operations making it impossible to reach the animals in time and making it too dangerous for DEC officers,” he said.

Whales – predominately humpbacks – are seen off the metropolitan coast from May onwards and generally are further out to sea on the northern leg of their migration.

People who see an entangled or beached whale should keep a safe distance from the animals and contact DEC’s Wildcare Helpline on 9474 9055.

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The whales owned by SeaWorld can be extremely hindered in their ability to mother their young. (Photo: Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images)

After demonstrating ‘strange behaviors’ in the days prior, a 10-month-old whale passes away.

June 16^th, 2013 (David Kirby). An infant female orca by the name of Vicky has died at the Loro Parque amusement park in the Canary Islands, park officials announced today on its Facebook page.

Vicky, just 10 months old, had been rejected by her mother Kohana, a young orca who was ripped from her own mother’s side at just 19 months of age and eventually shipped off to Tenerife.

“In contrast with joy with which Loro Parque announced the birth of the second baby orca in Spain, last August 3rd, today with enormous regret we inform you of the sad demise of Vicky, who with so much emotion and affection, the team of OrcaOcean cared for in her 10 months of life,” Loro Parque’s Facebook page says.

The death was sudden and the cause unknown, though Vicky had been showing unusual behaviors in recent days, according to the post. It was serious enough to fly in SeaWorld’s chief veterinarian to perform an examination.

The orcas at Loro Parque all belong to SeaWorld, and are cared for and trained according to SeaWorld protocols. In 2006, the company flew four young whales—two females, Kohana and Skyla, and two males, Keto and Tekoa—to Spain on a “breeding loan.”

About two years later Kohana, at just six years of age, (extremely young for an orca) was impregnated and, in 2010, gave birth to a male calf named Adan. All orcas born at Loro Parque are the legal property of SeaWorld.

Kohana, however, was an utterly unfit mother, and she wanted nothing to do with Adan, rejecting him almost immediately.

Many critics speculated that Kohana had simply never learned how to be a mother, because there were no mother orcas at Loro Parque for her to emulate. It didn’t help matters that Kohana only spent 19 months with her own mother before being taken away.

Even as Adan was being hand-nursed by park staff, Kohana became pregnant again, this time with Vicky. The father in both pregnancies was Keto, who is Kohana’s uncle, making Adan and Vicky more inbred orcas to add to SeaWorld’s “collection.” One whale at a SeaWorld park was impregnated by her own son. According to bloodline charts, Vicky was related to 21 out of 26 SeaWorld killer whales.

Last year, when Vicky was born, Kohana again immediately rejected her calf. The double-tragedy was covered beautifully by Elizabeth Batt at Digital Journal.

I have been studying killer whale issues intensively for about three years, and have never heard of a mother rejecting her calf in the wild. It is hard to imagine. But in my book Death at SeaWorld, I document several cases of maternal rejection in captivity.

TakePart has written about Loro Parque in the past, including this article about the female orca Morgan who, after stranding in the Netherlands, was sent to Tenerife and is now listed on SeaWorld’s stock offering as belonging to them.

And last December, in another piece, TakePart reported that, “Advocates were aghast at the trans-Atlantic arrangement. Killer whales, whether in the ocean or a crowded pool, are highly socialized animals who learn from elders about proper norms of behavior. Mothers, grandmothers and older siblings keep youngsters in check, and extinguish outbursts of disharmony that disrupt cohesion and proper pod functioning.”

“These whales are so young, without a normal upbringing, and now they’re in Spain together without any sort of adult orca supervision,’ one observer said. ‘It’s like Lord of the Flies over there.’”

It’s not clear if Kohana’s rejection of Vicky, or her inbreeding, contributed to her death (50 percent of wild-born orcas do not survive their first year). But it’s just another sad mark on the history and reputation of Loro Parque.

As I wrote in my book, at least one trainer was deeply concerned about the whales, and the way that Kohana’s uncle, Keto, kept trying to breed with her.

The trainer, Alex Martinez, turned to his personal diary to describe his growing worries about the erratic behavior. The whales’ seemingly bottomless sex drives were on the verge of upending the fragile social order imposed upon the hormonally charged adolescents.

“Keto is obsessed with controlling Kohana, he won’t separate from her, including shows,” Martinez wrote. Tekoa was also “very sexual when he is alone with Kohana.”

A few months later, Keto would “go off behavior” and brutally ram Martinez in the chest, killing him. Just two months after that, Dawn Brancheau would be mortally wounded in a similar fashion at SeaWorld Florida by the three-time killer Tilikum, who happens to be grandfather to Kohana and great-grandfather to her two hapless children, one of them now tragically gone.

Ndlr Sibylline : Killer Whales, Killer Stress : Captive Orcas Fight Back and Fight to Survive

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The 200kg whale (dolphin)

June 14^th, 2013 (Le Ha). A local fisherman named Le Van Son said he and several others were walking along the coast when they saw the stranded whale. Locals pulled the whale to the sea for six times but the animal kept swimming back to the shore.

Believing that the whale was determined to die on the beach, locals carried the animal to the whale temple of Duc Pho district. They burned incense and prayed for the whale, waited until it died and buried it.

Many big whales were previously stranded on the coast of Duc Pho district. They were buried by local fishermen. Their skeletons are now still preserved at the local whale temple.

Fishermen in central Vietnam build temples for whales and annually organize the “Nghinh Ong Festival” to worship the whale to seek good luck at sea.

They believe that whales rescue people in danger and accompany them to the safety of the shore. Over time they began to celebrate an annual festival to cherish the giant creatures between the 14th and 17th of the eighth lunar month. It also provides them the time to pray for peace, prosperity, and happiness for the whole community. The festival has come to epitomize traditional cultural values, reflect the local spirit, and celebrate life.

Rescuing black giant barb in Tay Ninh

 Mr. Nguyen Dinh Xuan, Director of the Lo Go – Xa Mat National Park in Tay Ninh Province, said that a 12kg black giant barb was caught in nets in the upstream Vam Co Dong River, in the buffer zone of the National Park on June 6.

The fish was handed over to the national park because this is a rare, endangered fish species, which is listed in the Red Book of Vietnam and the world.

The fish was seriously injured, with many scrapes on its body. If the fish does not survive, the national park will soak it in formaldehyde as a specimen for scientific research.

The giant barb is the largest species of cyprinid in the world. These migratory fish are found only in the Mae Klong, Mekong and Chao Phraya river basins in Indochina. It has declined drastically due to habitat loss and overfishing, and it is now considered Critically Endangered.

The giant barb.

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Capitaine Crochet is a female fin whale well known to tour operators in the Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park, where she became entangled.

June 13th, 2013 (Katrina Clarke). Rescue efforts are under way to save a beloved whale entangled in fishing gear in the St. Lawrence River.

Parks Canada officials say the head of the female fin whale is stuck in a crab trap; she has cuts on her mouth and an injury to her tail.

The captain of a whale-watching boat first noticed the distressed mammal in the Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park June 6.

She may have been tangled up in the trap for two weeks.

“It’s probably very, very painful,” said Nadia Ménard, a biologist with Parks Canada. The cage is cutting into the whale’s flesh around her mouth and putting pressure on her head, which has many blood vessels.

“We haven’t seen any signs of blood but it could cut an artery,” she said.

Parks staffers have nicknamed the female whale Capitaine Crochet (Captain Hook) for her hook-shaped dorsal fin.

She has been returning to the marine conservation area every year since 1994, sometimes with her calves.

The captains of the whale-watching boats also know her as a regular. “These captains, they love her,” said Ms. Ménard.

Fin whales are the world’s second-largest whales. Captain Hook is about 20 metres long and weighs 40 to 50 tonnes.

The biologist said the whale must have got caught in the trap elsewhere in the St. Lawrence because the conservation area doesn’t have the traps.

Last week, park officials hired a plane to better assess the situation. They determined Captain Hook was able to dive down and was feeding, but was thin.

They are working with Parcs Quebec, the Group for Research & Education on Marine Mammals and the Campobello Whale Rescue Team from the Bay of Fundy to rescue her.

On Saturday, the team tried to attach transmitter equipment and buoys to the trap to help track the whale. The hope is the buoys would help lift the cage off her head without human intervention. If this doesn’t work, they would try to cut the trap’s rope.

“The attempts came really close when we did find the whale,” Ms. Ménard said Tuesday.

She added it is difficult even to locate the whale as she only surfaces for one or two breaths, compared with up to five breaths, which is usual for a whale of her size.

But rescuers have not given up hope.

“Even though it’s a difficult operation, it is possible that the animal could survive,” said Ms. Ménard. “There’s no guarantee, but the whale is active and she’s diving and everything.”

She added there is always a risk of infection even if Captain Hook is disentangled, but for now she is thinking postitively.

“Once she’s free, hopefully she’ll be able to get back to her business… and get fat again.”

Parks Canada says anyone who sees the whale should stay at least 400 metres away. If the whale becomes more stressed, it could compromise the operation.

Those who spot the whale are asked to contact the Quebec Marine Mammal Emergency Response Network at 1-877-722-5346.

This is not the first time this year a whale has been in distress in Quebec. In January, a dozen whales became trapped in the ice near an Inuit community in northern Quebec.

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June 13^th, 2013 (AP). OCEAN SHORES, Wash. – A 68-foot male fin whale washed ashore dead Thursday morning on the coast about four miles north of Ocean Shores.

Cascadia Research Collective’s John Calambokidis says the whale likely died after being struck by a ship. The whale had evidence of blunt force trauma.

Calambokidis says fin whales are at higher risk of being hurt by ship strikes. He says the reason is under study but it may be that those species don’t know how to react to ships, which are becoming faster and more numerous.

Earlier this year an incomplete fin whale carcass washed ashore in the Puget Sound. Calambokidis says that carcass also had signs of a ship strike.

Fin whales usually swim further offshore than most other baleen whales that are spotted in Washington waters.

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The pod of whales was spotted off Kangaroo Island. Supplied : IFAW

June 13^th, 2013. A pod of rare and elusive shepherd’s beaked whales have been spotted off Kangaroo Island in South Australia.

The whales, which are about seven metres long and half the length of the humpback, are so uncommon that scientists have no real population estimates.

A research team from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) was listening for whales with underwater microphones when they came across the pod.

Matthew Collis from the IFAW says the group of whales included a mother and calf.

“They’ve only been seen in the wild a handful of times,” he said.

“Most of what we know about shepherd’s beaked whales comes from dead stranded animals, so it’s really a very exciting moment for the team to see this whale in the wild.

“They tend to make the sounds when they’re diving and when they’re searching for food in deep water but when they’re at the surface they will tend to be quieter.

“It was actually just really good luck and fortune that they were in the right place at the right time to see these whales at the surface.”

The area where the whales were spotted has been recognised as a worldwide hotspot for shepherd’s beaked whales.

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