May 31 2009
Whales and Their Calves Washed Ashore on South African beach
- 55 Whales and Their Calves Washed Ashore on South African beach -
People on Kommetjie Beach, South Africa, witnessed a heartbreaking and extraordinary sight.
Around 55 Pilot whales and their calves lay dying, stranded on the beach as high waves crashed to the shore stopping rescuers attempts at returning them to the sea.
A host of volunteers and marine scientists went to the whale’s aid as the heavy creatures were washed ashore in the bad weather.
The incident occurred at 1:30 am yesterday when the beach became littered with the whales and their calves.
This is the first mass beaching that this beach has experienced and experts are at a loss as to why so many whales have become beached here.
Volunteers were trying to keep the mammals wet in order to keep them alive, but many were dying where they lay.
The giant waves were washing the poor creatures ashore and at the same time stopping the rescue team from retuning them to the ocean.
Earth-moving equipment was being used to front load the whales and transport them to the sea but it was an arduous effort with the impossible state of the ocean.
Sadly, abound a dozen of the whales later died from stress and exhaustion, while the remaing 40 were shot by the authorities.
‘The carcasses are now being cleared and people on the beach have been warned to be on their guard because sharks may be looking for the whale carcasses.
The waters off Cape Town are teeming with Great White sharks, and shark activity usually increases when whales die’.
Whale-watching is very popular along the coast of South Africa, with tourists finding a good vantage point to spend many an hour watching these wonderful creatures in their habitat. -
How terrible that they shot the remaining 40 whales dead. I suppose that if they were going to die anyway though then shooting them was being cruel to be kind. It’s such a horrible thing to have happened that all of these whales have washed ashore, and that the sea conditions were too poor to get the whales back out alive. I wonder what could have caused this?
I hope there aren’t any shark attacks now, and I also hope that this doesn’t happen again anytime soon.
You really are an excellent writer, and this is yet another brilliant piece from you. I like it when you write about animals. Especially whales and cats - it’s just a shame that in this case it’s such a sad story.
I think they were shot as they were really stressed and close to death.
It is very sad though. Maybe the sea was really rough and carried the whales in on a strong current.