50-foot sea creature washes up on Delaware shore. But rescue proves too ‘treacherous’
On the morning of Sunday, May 5, a member of the second largest ocean species lay at the water’s edge in Delaware.
It was a 50-foot sub-adult fin whale, a species rarely seen near shore.
But something was very wrong.
“The whale is extremely emaciated which indicates a long-term underlying condition,” the Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute said in a post on Facebook the day the whale was discovered.
More evidence of the whale’s ailment was the sheer fact that the whale had been near the coast at all, the nonprofit said.
“Fin whales are an offshore species and would not normally come near shore unless they are becoming so weak that they can no longer surface to breathe, and they head into shore.”
Hundreds of people started to gather on the beach, including responders from MERR, according to the Delaware News Journal.
It became apparent very quickly that the whale wasn’t going to make it. Experts’ best bet was to sedate the whale to ease its suffering. But attempts to get close enough to do so proved to be harder than expected, the nonprofit said.
“Unfortunately the water level and waves made it too treacherous for our responders to do that safely for the whale or for them.”
Suzanne Thurman told Delaware News Journal that with water levels that high, the massive creature could easily roll on top of its rescuers and kill them. Although they badly wanted to calm the distressed whale, it wasn’t worth losing human lives knowing she would likely pass any minute.
That night, the fin whale took its last breath.
According to the outlet, local efforts have now shifted to moving the gigantic animal off the beach and into a comprehensive whale necropsy to find out what made it so deathly ill.
Officials plan to bury the whale on the beach, according to the Delaware News Journal.
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