After an outpouring of concern and some social media criticism, the Dauphin Island Sea Lab has further explained and defended the decision to end the life of the first sperm whale known to have wandered into Mobile Bay.
The appearance of a sperm whale in the bay was so unheard of – typically only two sperm whales a year ever beach in the entire Gulf of Mexico – that it indicates that there was something terribly wrong to begin with, said Dr. Ruth Carmichael, marine biologist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab.
The Sea Lab on Thursday posted an explanation of why scientists chose euthanasia as the proper response to handling the whale’s situation. Meanwhile, the whale’s carcass has been removed from the bay and will be studied by scientists.
“The whale was transported to secured, private property for necropsy to determine cause of stranding,” Carmichael told AL.com.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, the federal department responsible for the nation’s ocean resources, posted a picture of the whale’s carcass after it was removed from the bay.
The massive creature was estimated to be more than 30 feet long and weigh 15 tons, although exact measurements have not been publicly released yet. Update: Necropsy results measured it as 33.5 feet long.
The decision to euthanize was made by biologists including staff from NOAA. The Dauphin Island Sea Lab posted the following explanation on its web site:
Euthanasia is by no means an easy option. It is physically and emotionally demanding. For biologists who spend their lives studying and working toward the conservation of these majestic animals, there are no easy options when a marine mammal strands. In all cases, we try to do what is right for the animal with the consideration of the safety of our team.
1. The animal was already in poor condition when it stranded, making survival highly unlikely for any marine mammal, but particularly problematic for large whales such as this one (>30 feet long, as much as 30,000 lbs) due to exposure and other stresses.
2. The animal is very far from its natural range, which is in waters > 200 meters deep at least 60+ miles offshore (likely more than 100 miles from where it stranded farthest north in Mobile Bay, near Montrose). This means that the animal was already showing an inability to orient itself over any of that distance.
3. The animal had opportunities to move in the bay during the subsequent week but re-stranded multiple times, further indicating a poor prognosis.
4. Trying to pull or push a whale of this massive size to open ocean can cause serious internal injury (dislocating bones, damaging muscles), making it far more painful and harmful than helpful, and the animal would likely re-strand in any case (due to the original cause of illness or injury, if it survived the relocation). In very few cases have large whales been successfully relocated. According to NOAA, to their knowledge, no one in the country has been able to successfully free-float and release a stranded sperm whale.
5. It is difficult to impossible to get any type of towing device onto a live animal this size, a vessel to safely and feasibly move it 100 miles offshore, and remove any towing gear to avoid entanglement, making relocation essentially infeasible.
6. There are no facilities to treat or rehabilitate an animal this large even if it were in a suitable condition. The largest facilities and aquariums in the country do not have tanks suitable for the rehabilitation of a whale this size.
