Stuck whale spawns rescue effort

DFO believe the 22-foot long pilot whale followed an abundant quantity of bait such as mackerel and herring into the South-West Port Mouton Harbour.

The whale had been spotted further south in the Harbour for the last three weeks and on Wednesday DFO, officers were notified as the whale got closer and closer to shore.

Eventually the whale did beach and a large group of people went on boats in the harbour, at high tide, in an attempt to bring the whale into open sea.

“What you do is line up the boats and it’s supposed to stay in front of you. But this one here kept turning back and circling under our boats…it’s smart,” said local fisherman Clyde Fisher, who was amongst the five boat rescue party.

The boats continued attempting to bring the whale to the open water and the large crowds gathered at the harbour’s edge were able to glimpse the whale surfacing every few minutes, first at one end of the harbour and then at the other.

“It’s still there now,” said Fisher the following afternoon, “it’s just staying in that one area.”

“If there’s an abundance of food he will just come in and stay for awhile,” explained DFO officer Chasity McKinnon, “he could be playing, he could be lost, or he could be sick.”

Barry Bowers a DFO officer at the rescue attempt said the beaching of a whale in that area is uncommon.

“This is really unusual,” he said. “We can’t prove it but we think after he followed some bait in over the sandbar his sonar picked up everything in the surrounding area and now he can’t find the channel to find his way back into the open water.”

The officials are now planning to wait it out to see if the whale will make it out on his own but Bowers explained that every time the whale approached the sandbar blocking his way to the open ocean, he would turn around and swim away.

“He might feel threatened by it,” said Bowers.

The other possibility is that the whale will come ashore and beach itself. If or when that occurs, Bowers informs that there will be rescue teams notified who will attach a harness around the whale and tow him out to sea and the open water.

Bowers warns people to keep their distance from the mammal or else face charges of harassing an animal.

He explained that surfers were reportedly attempting to approach the animal Thursday afternoon.

“For the safety of the public,” he warned, “it’s a healthy animal and one good swap with that tail and somebody can get really hurt.”

In the meantime, residents are enjoying the rare treat of a whale’s presence in their community.

“My neighbours went to Digby to whale-watch today,” said one local resident, “but they could have stayed home to see the same thing.”