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American Morning

Heartbreaking End to Fight to Save Dozens of Whales

Aired July 31, 2002 - 08:41   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We want to focus right now on the shores of Cape Cod, a heartbreaking end to the fight to save dozens of whales that beached themselves for the second straight day. More than 50 pilot whales stranded again on Cape Cod's Dennis Beach on Monday. Rescuers saved all but nine. Tuesday, 25 of them turned for shore again and became stranded on Lieutenant's island. That's near Wellesley (ph). This time they could not be saved. From Boston, again, A.J. Cady of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the organization that headed up that rescue effort.

A.J., good morning again. Thanks for coming back. I wish we could talk about better news, but give us a better understanding as to why these whales could not be saved a second time around.

A.J. CADY, INTL. FUND FOR ANIMAL WELFARE: Well, after the first day stranding, they're under tremendous stress, and they just, by luck, ended up in deep up into the marshes. They stranded once, we got them back off by midday, but they were so disoriented, they just ended up wandering deeper into the marsh lands, and by the time they stranded the third time the opinions of the veterinarians was that they were not likely to survive, and so the most humane thing to do at that point was to try to limit their suffering as much as possible.

HEMMER: So they were weakened considerably then, huh?

CADY: Tremendously weakened. Each time they're on the beaches, they're supremely adapted for the water, but they just can't handle that weight of being on land. It causes internal injuries.

HEMMER: Listen, you're closer to this than man most of us. What's it like to put such a large pod to sleep?

CADY: It's devastating. There's deep sadness when you have to do it. But you try to find some hope. There's some feeling of success from this event, because millions of people all over the world have reconnected at some level with whales through the media coverage of the last few days. And we couldn't save these 56, but there's still hope to save thousands of whales every year, if we can just persuade Japan and Norway to stop commercial whaling. People can help with the relief efforts if they visit our Web site, www.ifa.org. There's information on what they can do on emergency relief, and the broader campaign to protect these whales from commercial whaling, from entanglement in fishing nets, from pollution, from all of these events. HEMMER: A.J., how about this theory of searching for food. Do you buy it? How viable?

CADY: I'm not a scientists, but when I talked to the scientists, it seems quite credible. These animals spend most of their time off shore, so it's quite possible they're pursuing squid or mackerel inshore. And once they get in the shallow waters of the bay, it's just a natural for them.

HEMMER: Also in this part of Massachusetts, you're averaging an incident, about one a year, about one of every 18 months. Is there any reason as to why this part of the country is seeing incidents like these, A.J.?

CADY: We just don't know at this time. The research continues. At the moment, the best you can do is try to learn and get better with each event.

HEMMER: Got it. A.J. Cady, Cape Cod Stranding Network, working his best up there in Massachusetts. Thanks for coming back, all right.

CADY: Thank you.

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