A Whale of a Time? Not exactly...

Still sleeping on Saturday morning, but being a volunteer NSRI member, I got the callout at 07h45 ("reports of 2 whales beached") and hit the NSRI base at Kommetjie just after 8am. Straight into a wetsuit and down to Surfers Corner on Longbeach to see a large number of people already there. Through the morning, I spoke to a guy who said he was one of the first on the beach that morning and he had counted 56 whales. The whales are popularly known (in error) as Pilot Whales, but are actually "False Killer Whales".

There were, on estimate, between 300 and 400 volunteers, from the public, NSRI, MCM, TMNP, and a couple of other organisations, all trying to help. It's true, it started off a bit chaotic and disorganised, but that did not result in the eventual mass culling of the mammals that is getting unjust worldwide publicity (particularly, as usual, on YouTube). That was done on a humanitarian basis. Leaving the mammals to struggle like that for any longer than they had endured already would have been inhumane to say the least.

For the eight hours that I was in the frigid water, I helped people try and keep "their whale" calm and wet and passed on information updates as we received them from various "informed sources". Some of the information was contradictory to others, which just went to show how unprepared Cape Town marine services are for this type of event. What sounded to me the most logical piece of information was to have the mammal lie at a slight angle, to keep the majority of its weight (some of them weighed an estimated two tonnes) off its lungs and other vital organs, and to "swap sides" every ten minutes or so.

The weather and tides were against us, with 3 to 4 metre swells coming in on a dropping tide, coupled with the strong onshore wind which whipped the water into a cold spray. To make things more difficult, due to the onshore winds and current, large amounts of loose kelp were suspended in the water and made a foothold difficult at times.

At around 9am, we (collectively) had turned around just about every one of the whales and tried to refloat them, but time and again, they returned to the beach mostly about 200m further along. It appeared they were just not interested in returning to sea. The reason/s for this is, and will be for some time to come, debated but I suspect we will never actually know. We just don't know enough about these creatures to say for sure.

Some of the whales, it is estimated, were turned around up to 10 times yet each time they returned to the shore and beached again. Undaunted though, the volunteers regrouped every time and tried again and again to get each of the whales to head back out to sea through the rough surf, in the end to no avail.

Another of the amazing things that happened was the way in which the volunteers were treated by "support crews" from the public and the NSRI. Mostly, the NSRI support crew supplied hot drinks and food for our own people, but never turned down a request of a drink or a hot dog from a volunteer from the public. I had Energade drinks, chunks of chocolate bars, hot coffee laced with sugar for energy, and juice thrust at me from a number of people. It was quite astounding to see the effort and disregard for expense that some people put in. A hat would have been nice though, as I ended up with a sunburned head and what I suspect was a mild dose of sunstroke... :-) That'll teach me, if there's a next time, to take a cap along.

All the while that we were trying to refloat the whales, senior members of the various organisations were discussing the situation, and passing along decisions, but at around 2pm the NSRI teams received the news that, as they had no desire to return to the sea, the whales were to be "put down". It was, and still is, very difficult to see and think about a 5.2m whale, which you had been nursing for two hours thinking that it might somehow change its mind and want to swim off on the incoming tide, take a bullet to "put it out of its misery". In caring for this particular whale, I met some great people and we discussed, joked and laughed about things relating to the efforts and just life in general, but when the decision was relayed to us, I had to walk away as I felt I'd been let down by my own organisation. However, as was discussed with us later, the decision to euthanase the mammals did not come from the NSRI (we are primarily concerned about the safety of people in the water) but from senior members of the government's Marine and Coastal Management and a professor of marine matters. It did not, however, make me feel any better about what was to happen to the whales.

The NSRI teams were asked to help the police form a line at the northern end of the beach, accompanied by a line of vehicles to keep the crowd away. Loudspeakers were used to ask the public to move off the beach, but it wasn't until after the first shot rang out that I suspect the public understood what was going to happen. Some people had brought their children down to see the beaching and were horrified that they were now seeing a mass cull. People wondered how the authorities could allow their children to see this, but it was not the authorities who brought the children down to the beach. Isn't it strange how some people refuse to accept responsibility for things they do themselves and try to blame it on someone/something else? I lost track of how many times I heard police and MCM asking people to remove themselves from the beach to allow the efforts to proceed. The SAPS and Metro Police, while they started off doing a great job, eventually gave up on trying to keep the public back from the whales, but now the lines of vehicles and SAPS and NSRI members forced them to make their way up the dunes.

The line moved southwards along the beach, stopping now and then for the policeman with the rifle to make a shot or two. In a sad sort of way, he was a good shot as I did not see him have to take a second shot at any of the whales. Eventually, I could not take any more of it and left the line, making my way back to the station's mobile unit to wait with some of our crew members.

At around 4pm, I left the beach and made my way back to my bakkie, got out of the wetsuit as I was now beginning to shiver and got dressed in my dry, warm, tracksuit and jersey. I went back to the base, washed off the wetsuits that had been used by some of our crew, hanged them up to dry inside the base and moved down to the launch site to see if there was any activity down there. Here I found that we were about to launch a boat to rescue two whales which had been swum out but had re-beached on the rocks about 500m south of the original site.

While I was waiting for the boat to come down from the base, I chatted to a NSRI volunteer from Gordons Bay (40km away) and some little wanker with a video camera ran past us and shouted "Where were you this morning?" to which we responded we were at the orginal site. In return he shouted, "Great. Look out for yourself on the internet tomorrow morning. Get scared." At first, I didn't understand what he meant, but he had obviously been taking photographs or footage of NSRI people while we were in the line during the cull and was about to post our pictures on the internet to try and get us disgraced by members of the public who viewed his footage. First thing today, I went onto YouTube and did a search for the videos that I knew would already be there and, I suspect, though not confirmed, that the piece of footage submitted by "JacksonFilm.co.za" was done by the same person. This video shows a skewed viewpoint, as though nothing positive had been done throughout the day. I tried to post a comment in response to the footage but the YouTube server is obviously too busy. My comment to Mr Jackson was to have been, "As a proud member of the NSRI, I spent 10hrs trying with hundreds of volunteers to save these whales. I have a question for Mr "JacksonFilm.co.za"...While we were in the water doing our bit, WHAT WERE YOU DOING TO HELP, YOU FUCKING HYPOCRITE? If there's a next time, either GET A WETSUIT ON OR STAY THE FUCK OFF THE BEACH!!" People like him piss the hell out of me as they contribute very little to humanity, always seeking to sensationally get recognised for their "work". Well, as I said, he better stay the fuck off the beach next time, as I might just have a go at him myself.

As it was, there was no need to launch our boat as three more members of the public had waded out on the rocks and brought the distressed whales into the shore. Not long after that, the policeman with the rifle appeared and, this time with reason I believe, put these two out of their misery.

By 6pm, I was cold and hungry, so headed home for a shower as there was nothing more I could do to help, either the whales or my NSRI crew. As I got home, my missus had also just arrived home from her art class and I tried as best I could to relay the day's events to her. It wasn't easy and I hope I don't have to experience a day like this again.

The people involved in the rescue, whether they were from the general public or any of the number of organisations, were great and tried damned hard to rescue the whales, but in the end, unfortunately, we failed. Hopefully, though, we learned some valuable lessons which might make any future rescues a success.