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CNN Live Today

Second Day in Row Pilot Whales Beach Themselves

Aired July 30, 2002 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are going to get some more information here. Let's bring in A.J. Cady. He is with us. He is with the International Fund For Animal Welfare.

A.J., good morning.

A.J. CADY, INTL. FUND FOR ANIMAL WELFARE: Good morning.

KAGAN: As you look at these pictures, can you explain what happened, as far as you understand it?

CADY: Yes, the latest news is that, actually, it looks like these are the same animals from yesterday. And what's happened is...

KAGAN: The same ones they encouraged to go back to sea have now rebeached themselves?

CADY: Yes, and we see this sometimes. Essentially what happened is, once the whales got off the beach, they started to swim to the east and perhaps they just get confused in the shallow water. Their echo location doesn't work very well, and they just hit the outer edge of the cape. It is sort of a natural trap that region, so we see this happen sometimes.

KAGAN: We were lucky yesterday in getting 46 of the whales back out to sea. Be lucky two days in a row? Is that possible? Or do you think these animals are just determined to beach themselves?

CADY: Well, it looks a lot worse today. Yesterday, we had about the best situation you could have, of a nice sandy bottom, open beach. Today there on a mud flat. It is much more remote. And the animals are only badly stressed from yesterday. We will do everything we can, but suspect we will probably lose at least some of them today.

KAGAN: You were saying it sounds like whales that lose their way. But do we understand why whales beach themselves?

CADY: We just don't know. There's three sort of leading theories and it may be a combination of they are either pursuing prey, they're disoriented, or it may be some are sick with a virus or parasite, and the scientists don't know. Part of what we are trying to do is learn more with each event.

KAGAN: And I was reading about yesterday's event, and understand that there is some concern it is not so simple just to send a whale back out to sea, because that distress call they send out could encourage more whales to come that way.

CADY: Yes, they are highly social animals, and they communicate by sonar, so if some of the animals are off the beach and others ones are still on, they will talk to each other. And the Ones that are free swimming will actually come back in and attempt to help the ones that are still on shore.

KAGAN: And just for our viewers who are joining us once again, as A.J. Cady from the International Fund for Animal Welfare was explaining, this time, it's the second day in a row that these pilot whales have beached themselves. We believed that it's many of the same whales that did it yesterday. This time their on Lieutenant's Island. As. A J. Cady was explaining today's situation looks a bit more ominous, because of the type of beach they're on, and also having suffering distress from yesterday.

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