Sperm Whale Dies At Terschelling (Netherlands)

Tuesday, July 30^th, 2013 (Radjin Persad). The sperm whale which stranded on Terschelling, Monday afternoon, deceased. This was reported by the Royal Dutch Rescue Society (KNRM) on Twitter. Besides the KNRM, shelter SOS Dolfijn, a towing and salvage company from Terschelling and the Ministry of Economic Affairs were involved in the rescue, but unfortunately to no avail.

The animal stranded at the beginning of the afternoon at the height of pole 26, on the northeast side of the island of Terschelling. Municipal employees of Terschelling went to the site of the stranding to see what needed to be done, said a spokesman of the municipality.

Shelter SOS Dolphin shared early in the afternoon, that the animal was still alive and possibly partly under water.

Rescue Mission

Simon Smith, owner of the Terschelling towing company Noordgat: “When we went, after the message, around a quarter past three to the beach, the animal had his eyes open, he was still breathing and he moved his tail slowly.”

Smit and four others immediately started digging a deep trench around the whale and they managed to turn the animal so he was laying again with his head towards the sea. “He should have been able to give a big hit with his tail en go into the sea. Unfortunately, around 6 pm, he was hardly breathing and you saw him loosing his power by the minute. That goes to your heart, if you are standing there with five tough guys and some creature with big eyes is looking at you.”

Previously the towing company managed to save two big whales in Vlieland. “But this was very hard.”

Protocol

For saving the stranded whale, a protocol entered into force: The Protocol Stranding Living Large Cetaceans.

This protocol was sent this month by State Secretary Sharon Dijksma to the House. It was established, after disagreements had arisen about the approach of the stranded humpback Johanna, who died on a bank above Den Helder in December 2012.

More strandings

This year already about 550 whales stranded in the Netherlands. That is above average. “Normally we get in a year 600 or 700 stranded whales,”  said a spokesman for Biodiversity Center Naturalis.

In 2010 the count stood at 880. The years thereafter the authorities recorded 732 and 521 strandings respectively.

Stranded No More

Source