Tourists help save beached whales
Tourists helped save the lives of more than 40 pilot whales who had beached themselves on a Cape Cod beach.
Nine of the whales died before they could be pushed back out to deeper water in a feverish rescue effort.
Hundreds of tourists lined a quarter mile stretch of Chapin Beach in Massachusetts and watched as rescuers tended to the small, glistening black whales, first discovered stranded in the early hours.
One of the whales was dead when rescuers arrived, and another was put down after it went into shock, said Sallie Riggs, director of Cape Cod Stranding Network.
Seven others died after spending hours in the hot sun. The carcasses were taken away in a truck while volunteers poured buckets of water over the others and draped them with wet towels to keep them moist.
The rising tide at midday helped volunteers push the remaining 46 whales into water deep enough for the animals to swim on their own.
‘‘To see this many whales get off free after six hours is amazing,’’ said Judy Scarafile, a member of the stranding network. ‘‘We all have our fingers crossed that they’ll not come back.’’
Pilot whales are common in New England waters. They range from 12 feet to 16 feet in length as adults and weigh about 1,800 pounds. Also known as blackfish, they feed on squid, sand eels and small crustaceans.
Mass strandings of pilot whales are not unusual since they are highly sociable animals that travel and feed in groups and frequent areas near the coastline.
In July 2000, 10 pilot whales were stranded in shallow water off Nantucket Island. They died despite the efforts of volunteers and whale experts.
On Christmas Eve 1991, 31 pilot whales became stranded off Cape Cod and died. Scientists said the whales apparently were following tiny crustaceans called krill when they became trapped in the shallows.
