Minke Whale (2001)
The lull before the storm….
Hiya all,
I’ve got a weekend off…. Unless the farmers go out cutting!
I’ve just checked Birdwatch Ireland’s messages again, and no-one has rang in with cutting news. So, I have a noggin of Hennessy and a bottle of port. It’s a gorgeous day outside but I’m going stay in, blog, watch movies and that sort of thing….
Last night I talked my dad through uploading a copy of a photo that I have back in England. He photographed the photo and sent it to me. So I’ll share it…. The story with it would be that I’d been living in Shetland and been working away doing survey work, and arrived back at the Shetland Biological Record Centre, to find a distraught message that on my home island, Bressay, there was a stranded whale and the tide was falling. There was one ferry that would arrive in time, the second ferry would be too late, and could any-one get there that could help...
I met a team on the ferry, with dry-suits and a vet. We were able to get the whale up, turned around and relaunched. The ferry and the local lighthouse were able to follow the whale to it’s regrouping with it’s pod.
I’ve never felt so good in my whole life. I thought that I’d share that.
I’m the fat guy on the left. No-one showed me how to let the trapped air out. I was floating most of the time, struggling to get my feet down to walk. On the upside it added extra lift to my end of the straps. The whale had a small wound, about 10 inches long and a couple of inches deep. The vet said that was no problem to an animal of this size. I produced a pen-knife. I asked if I could get a similar slice, as I’d never eaten whale-meat, the others fell out with me! Crikey, I was taking very expert advice, and saving a young whale’s life. There’s no understanding some folk…….
I then went back home and watched my sparrow population eat 6 pints of bird food in less than 2 hours... wicked.
I remember the day so well.
Hiya all,
I’ve got a weekend off…. Unless the farmers go out cutting!
I’ve just checked Birdwatch Ireland’s messages again, and no-one has rang in with cutting news. So, I have a noggin of Hennessy and a bottle of port. It’s a gorgeous day outside but I’m going stay in, blog, watch movies and that sort of thing….
Last night I talked my dad through uploading a copy of a photo that I have back in England. He photographed the photo and sent it to me. So I’ll share it…. The story with it would be that I’d been living in Shetland and been working away doing survey work, and arrived back at the Shetland Biological Record Centre, to find a distraught message that on my home island, Bressay, there was a stranded whale and the tide was falling. There was one ferry that would arrive in time, the second ferry would be too late, and could any-one get there that could help...
I met a team on the ferry, with dry-suits and a vet. We were able to get the whale up, turned around and relaunched. The ferry and the local lighthouse were able to follow the whale to it’s regrouping with it’s pod.
I’ve never felt so good in my whole life. I thought that I’d share that.
I’m the fat guy on the left. No-one showed me how to let the trapped air out. I was floating most of the time, struggling to get my feet down to walk. On the upside it added extra lift to my end of the straps. The whale had a small wound, about 10 inches long and a couple of inches deep. The vet said that was no problem to an animal of this size. I produced a pen-knife. I asked if I could get a similar slice, as I’d never eaten whale-meat, the others fell out with me! Crikey, I was taking very expert advice, and saving a young whale’s life. There’s no understanding some folk…….
I then went back home and watched my sparrow population eat 6 pints of bird food in less than 2 hours... wicked.
I remember the day so well.
posted by Davy at
11:03 AM
2 Comments:
Good-looking chick on the far right. Who could that be, I wonder?
nothing like saving an animal really! We get a lot of whales beaching themselves here too.. I also read about the rescue of one that was caught in shark net and was swimming down the coast. the rescue went form QLD to eden in the south of NSW. Divers had to cut the steel lines... they saved the whale.
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