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Expert Discusses Saving of Whales off Cape Cod

Aired July 29, 2002 - 14:43   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Volunteers rushed to a beach on Cape Cod today after dozens of whales became stranded. At last word, 30 of these whales had been successfully freed into Cape Cad Bay, but at least five of them, we are told, have died. And they are still on the shore, almost close to 20.
To talk more about these, we are joined by Mike Walsh of SeaWorld, in Orlando.

Mike, hello.

MIKE WALSH, SEAWORLD: Hi, how are you?

PHILLIPS: Good -- well, not so good when you see stories like this. let me ask you first of all, what type -- as you look at these pictures and you see these whales on the shore, how long can they survive on shore like this?

WALSH: It really depends on the individual animal. In some cases, they may already be very sick. In other cases, they may be in a position where they may be inhaling water, which will haste some of the symptoms that will go along with the problems. So we have seen animals that can survive actually for a day on shore depending upon what the surrounding atmosphere is like and whether it's rough seas or not.

PHILLIPS: So what you have to do is -- I see the rescue crews out here -- do they have to just keep for 24-7 putting wet towels on these mammals to try and regulate their body temperature? Is that the only way that they can survive?

WALSH: Well, that helps quite a bit. Their skin dries out rather rapidly, and as a result, you want to be able to keep them coated with water and protect them from the environment as well as, when possible, get them into a situation where they no longer have to be situated with all their weight on their body.

Often these instances are very complicated because we don't know whether or not the animals came ashore because of illness or whether they came ashore because, in the case of Cape Cod, a very unique shoreline architecture that is peninsula-like, that wraps around eastward and northward, can trap animals differently than it would down here in Florida.

PHILLIPS: That's a question that all of us have been asking that seems so bizarre. I mean, 50 of these pilot whales at one time -- 30, luckily, were able to get rushed off. What -- let's talk about more what can cause something like this.

WALSH: Well, mass strandings for years had been things that had confused people. Back in the late '80s, we started to actually find that we could develop tests to look for certain viruses. We're finding in some cases we have animals, basically, that are ill. So for the most part, whenever an animal strands, or even a mass stranding occurs, we assume that someone could be ill in the group, although, again, Cape Cod is very unique, so it can cause some other complicating factors.

It could be that the leader of the pod is sick; it could be that there were storms that led them towards shore. In some cases, these animals actually seem to navigate by geomagnetic cues that they find on the sea bottom, and if they get off on the wrong cue line, they may end up on shore before they realize there is a problem. You have these really cohesive pods that actually will follow a leader blindly also, and if that leader is sick and goes towards shore, everybody will follow him.

PHILLIPS: Well, 30 of those whales have been saved. Fortunately, only five have died. And now we've got about 15 or so more that these rescue workers are desperately trying to save.

Mike Walsh of SeaWorld, in Orlando -- Mike, thanks for a little perspective on what we are dealing with.

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