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CNN Sunday Morning
Interview With Roy Crabtree
Aired August 10, 2003 - 07:48 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.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN ANCHOR: OK, flashback now to mid April. This was the heartbreaking scene in the shallow waters off the Florida Keys. More than two dozen whales stranded. And most of them eventually died, but some made it back into deeper waters off the Atlantic Ocean, or were rescued.
Marine scientists consider the five rescued ones miracle whales. And in a couple of hours at high tide, after months of rehab, the five will return to sea.
For more on this whale of a tale, we are joined by Dr. Roy Crabtree. He is leading today's release off the coast of Big Pine Key, Florida.
Dr. Crabtree, thanks very much for joining us. Got to be a big day for you. How do you feel after seeing 28 beaching themselves four months or so ago, and now five that have a decent chance to go back out into the wild?
ROY CRABTREE, NOAA: Well, we always hate to see whales drown themselves, but we're real pleased to have these five whales and have an opportunity to release them today.
CALLEBS: Any idea what caused the initial beaching?
CRABTREE: Well, we really don't know, but whales do strand periodically. And these are pilot whales. And they strand. It may be that they become disoriented and get in shallower water than they intended. And some of the whales may have been sick or diseased.
These are social whales. And if the larger leader whales are ill, they'll sometimes strand themselves. And the others will just follow them on in.
CALLEBS: Kind of like lemmings, huh? Just stagger in there together, you know.
CRABTREE: Well, there's a lot we don't know about pilot whales and a lot of unanswered questions.
CALLEBS: Well what did this four months provide you guys. Did you have a chance to study them with the rehab and maybe gain some insight?
CRABTREE: Yes, I think we do. We've had a number of scientists out here, veterinarians monitoring the whales and their recovery. And we learn a lot about how these whales respond to these rehab events.
And then, after we release the whales, they'll all be tagged with satellite tags, radio transmitters, and those types of devices. And we're going to have two tracking vessels out there with them to follow them and monitor them. And hopefully, we'll learn something, not only about their behavior, but also about how these rehab activities -- how successful they are and hopefully learn how to do this better down the road.
CALLEBS: Dr. Crabtree, it has to be an exciting time for you, but also an anxious one. Everything I've read seems to indicate when you take the whales back, there's a chance they could beach themselves once again?
CRABTREE: There's no guarantees. And you know, they're certainly -- these are wild animals. And we can't be sure how they're going to respond. We are -- the two tracking vessels that we have are going to be equipped to recapture. So if one of the whales gets in trouble, or you know, those sorts of things, we do have the -- we think we have a good chance of being able to recapture them and bring them back in.
So we're trying to do, you know, what's best with the whales, but we want to give them an opportunity to return to the wild populations, if we can.
CALLEBS: But right now, they are robust and healthy and ready to go a couple hours from now?
CRABTREE: We -- everything looks good. We delayed a day. The weather's gotten much better. The winds lay down. And we have all the vessels. So things look good. And we'll see how it progresses as the day goes along.
CALLEBS: OK, best of luck and we'll check in later on, a couple hours, and see how things go. Dr. Crabtree, thanks a lot for joining us from Big Pine Key down in Florida.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired August 10, 2003 - 07:48 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN ANCHOR: OK, flashback now to mid April. This was the heartbreaking scene in the shallow waters off the Florida Keys. More than two dozen whales stranded. And most of them eventually died, but some made it back into deeper waters off the Atlantic Ocean, or were rescued.
Marine scientists consider the five rescued ones miracle whales. And in a couple of hours at high tide, after months of rehab, the five will return to sea.
For more on this whale of a tale, we are joined by Dr. Roy Crabtree. He is leading today's release off the coast of Big Pine Key, Florida.
Dr. Crabtree, thanks very much for joining us. Got to be a big day for you. How do you feel after seeing 28 beaching themselves four months or so ago, and now five that have a decent chance to go back out into the wild?
ROY CRABTREE, NOAA: Well, we always hate to see whales drown themselves, but we're real pleased to have these five whales and have an opportunity to release them today.
CALLEBS: Any idea what caused the initial beaching?
CRABTREE: Well, we really don't know, but whales do strand periodically. And these are pilot whales. And they strand. It may be that they become disoriented and get in shallower water than they intended. And some of the whales may have been sick or diseased.
These are social whales. And if the larger leader whales are ill, they'll sometimes strand themselves. And the others will just follow them on in.
CALLEBS: Kind of like lemmings, huh? Just stagger in there together, you know.
CRABTREE: Well, there's a lot we don't know about pilot whales and a lot of unanswered questions.
CALLEBS: Well what did this four months provide you guys. Did you have a chance to study them with the rehab and maybe gain some insight?
CRABTREE: Yes, I think we do. We've had a number of scientists out here, veterinarians monitoring the whales and their recovery. And we learn a lot about how these whales respond to these rehab events.
And then, after we release the whales, they'll all be tagged with satellite tags, radio transmitters, and those types of devices. And we're going to have two tracking vessels out there with them to follow them and monitor them. And hopefully, we'll learn something, not only about their behavior, but also about how these rehab activities -- how successful they are and hopefully learn how to do this better down the road.
CALLEBS: Dr. Crabtree, it has to be an exciting time for you, but also an anxious one. Everything I've read seems to indicate when you take the whales back, there's a chance they could beach themselves once again?
CRABTREE: There's no guarantees. And you know, they're certainly -- these are wild animals. And we can't be sure how they're going to respond. We are -- the two tracking vessels that we have are going to be equipped to recapture. So if one of the whales gets in trouble, or you know, those sorts of things, we do have the -- we think we have a good chance of being able to recapture them and bring them back in.
So we're trying to do, you know, what's best with the whales, but we want to give them an opportunity to return to the wild populations, if we can.
CALLEBS: But right now, they are robust and healthy and ready to go a couple hours from now?
CRABTREE: We -- everything looks good. We delayed a day. The weather's gotten much better. The winds lay down. And we have all the vessels. So things look good. And we'll see how it progresses as the day goes along.
CALLEBS: OK, best of luck and we'll check in later on, a couple hours, and see how things go. Dr. Crabtree, thanks a lot for joining us from Big Pine Key down in Florida.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
