Rescuing Whales

When most people hear the words 'whale rescue', they immediately think of whales that have washed up on the beach. These type of events are called strandings. Whale Patrol however, focuses on rescuing whales at sea, that have become caught up in marine debris. These are called entanglements.

Whale entanglements present a host of problems for rescuers. When whales are caught in marine debris, one of the most challenging aspects of the rescue is locating them in the vast tracts of often treacherous ocean. Search and rescue operations are undertaken using computer modelling, dead reckoning and using information from people at sea including professional fishermen and the general public.

When rescuers do eventually find an entangled whale, they have to get close enough to cut the whale free. Often the whales are still in peak physical condition and this presents a real threat to rescuers, as a 40 or 80 tonne whale can inflict fatal injuries. Special techniques have been devised to enable rescuers to get close to the whale without being injured.

Another common misconception is that rescuers go into the water to cut the whales free, which isn't the case. It is actually very risky to enter the water as a rescuer, because you can run the risk of getting caught in the marine debris trapped around the whale. Rescuers can also be hit by the whale's tail or pectoral fin. Another threat that rescuers have to be aware of is the presence of sharks who frequently stalk entangled whales, waiting for an opportunity to attack.

Over many years of live rescue operations, training and knowledge sharing, rescuers have developed and refined techniques to enable them to cut entangled whales free, without entering the water and endangering themselves. The first step in the rescue operation is to deploy pole cameras to enable rescuers to understand the dynamics of the rope or debris caught around the animal. Pole cameras are deployed from the boat and the image is viewed on special monitors or video goggles.

Once the entanglement has been examined, rescuers use specially designed knives to help cut the animal free. These knives have gone through many changes and modifications over the years and are specifically designed for cutting through tough rope entanglements. Some knives are made out of the hardest steel available, but even so, they can only be used once before having to be specially sharpened again.

Training plays a major role for whale rescue teams who generally undertake training operations and assessments once a year. Artificial whale tails have been constructed so that teams can practice cutting free a whale in scenarios that are as close as possible to real-life situations.

The Department of Environment & Conservation (DEC) whale rescue team is supported by other state agencies and in particular the Department of Fisheries, Western Australia, provides invaluable support in the form of large patrol vessels for offshore whale rescues. When an entangled whale is located, it's essential that the team get to it as quickly and safely as possible. The Department of Fisheries has long range patrol vessels and these are used by the team to transport them to the rescue location. These vessels are specially designed for the demanding waters off the Western Australian coast. Their experienced crew has assisted in many whale rescues and play an integral role in working with the DEC whale rescue team to free entangled whales.

Whale disentanglement is only a solution to a greater problem. In Western Australia, the DEC whale rescue team are trying to stay one step ahead of the problem and work out ways to actually reduce the amount of whales being caught in marine debris. In conjunction with the Western Australian lobster fishing industry, they have developed a 'Code of Practice', which the lobster fishers abide by to help reduce the possibility of whales being caught in their fishing equipment. The 'Code of Practice' has been extremely successful, with only two entanglements occurring since it was introduced 3 years ago. Both whales from these entanglements were rescued successfully. If you would like more details about the 'Code of Practice' please click here.

Over the period 1990 - 2008 their have been 56 large whale entanglements recorded along the Western Australian coast, which spans approximately 13,000 kilometres. The entangled whales included 49 Humpbacks, 5 Southern Rights, 1 Minke and 1 Brydes whale. Of these, 29 have been successfully disentangled, a 51.7% success rate - and of those reached by the DEC team, an amazing 100% have been successfully disentangled.

The core members of the DEC whale rescue team are highly experienced professionals who have an extremely interesting, challenging and varied career working with Australian wildlife. Learn more about them and the other interesting work they do with wildlife.

Read more about the Whale Rescue Team.

 

Issues

Wildlife authorities across Australia and the world regularly face the immense challenge of attempting to rescue beached or stranded whales. Depending on the location and the conditions, smaller animals can be quickly moved back into the water using machinery or people power. On many occasions in Australia, wildlife authorities, with the help of the public have successfully returned large numbers of stranded Pilot whales or False Killer whales back to the open ocean. However, when the animals are a much larger and heavier such as Sperm, Humpback or Southern Right whales, the rescue situation becomes increasingly difficult, because of the sheer size and weight of the animals.

When baleen whales like Humpbacks and Southern Rights beach, they do so simply for the reason that they are very sick or badly injured. The anatomy of baleen whales is such that when they beach, it triggers a host of problems for the whale. When the animal is up on a hard surface, its body is not supported by the buoyancy of the water and its immense body weight crushes down on its internal organs and compounds whatever illness it is suffering from. The animal is exposed to the elements and its skin gets badly sunburnt. The main problem faced by a beached whale is that they can no longer control their body heat exchange and because they cannot dissipate heat from their body, the core body temperature rises far above normal and this leads to irreversible organ and tissue damage.

This is often the scenario or condition that the whale is in when wildlife authorities first arrive on the scene. On many occasions in situations like this, rescuers are expected to attached ropes or slings to the whale and tow it off the beach, back out to sea. But this is not the appropriate response. Beached whales can weigh anywhere between seven thousand and forty thousand kilograms. Any attempt to drag them out to sea with ropes or slings dislocates joints, tears muscles, ligaments, cartilage and can even break bones, adding further injuries to an already suffering animal. Even if the whale was successfully pulled back out into the ocean, the weakened animal would simply wash back onto the beach or become and easy target for predators.

There are very limited options for the relevant authorities to manage such difficult incidents. If the whale is near death, palliative care is provided so the whale can wind down to die naturally, providing this process is likely to occur in the short term. The reality with large whales is that depending on the environmental conditions and the condition of the whale, potentially this process could take many days to many weeks for the whale to die. Experience has shown that some whales in fact may take months to die. The suffering is almost unimaginable.

In Western Australia there are established clinical examination procedures used on beached whales to reach a decision on an appropriate course of action. These are based on behaviour criteria, behaviour in water, general condition - respiration - heart rate - body temperature, reflexes, sun damage, starvation and injuries. The results of all these factors of the assessment are used to determine the chance of survival of the whale. If a whale has been assessed using the procedures above and the results are negative, then the only humane option is euthanasia.