The third of three sperm whales stranded off P.E.I.’s North Shore has died, a day after the first two massive creatures were confirmed to have perished, according to the executive director of the Marine Animal Response Society.
“What was decided yesterday, in the sense of the best thing for the animal and obviously with human safety in mind, was to let … nature take its course, let the animal pass peacefully,” Tonya Wimmer said in an interview with CBC Radio’s As It Happens on Tuesday.
“But it’s still pretty heartbreaking.”
The three young male whales were first noticed Saturday night on the ocean side of a small chain of islands close to Hardys Channel, near East Bideford in western P.E.I. Each weighed between 15 and 20 tonnes, Wimmer estimated.
“There’s only a few handful of options that can even be considered with animals this large,” she told As It Happens. “The usual tools we may have to be able to refloat or move animals aren’t necessarily available to us.”
Sperm whales remain stranded off P.E.I.’s North Shore
She said the first instinct for many people not used to dealing with whales would be “to put a rope around the tail and pull. And that’s actually one of the worst things that you can do for these animals of any size.”
Wimmer said sperm whales are usually found far offshore, in waters at least 800 metres deep.
They are known for their diving abilities, using them to feed on deepwater squid and other prey near the sea floor.
“For them to be in extremely shallow waters was a … bit of a red flag because this really is an area they shouldn’t be in, in terms of how they work and function and use the habitat and what they eat,” Wimmer said.
She said the next step is to figure out whether a necropsy can be performed on at least one of the marine mammals, to see if there might have been a physical reason for their behaviour, or “if they were all fairly healthy and somehow just got disoriented and went the wrong way.”
