[cherry]

"These moronic creatures beach themselves by the hundreds, for reasons we can’t fathom, and we defy their instincts and wishes by dragging them back"

this statement could apply to humans as well, as we try to salvage all the people purposedly destroying their lives with drugs/alcohol etc...

[IronJack]

Yeah, except people — SOME people — are worthy of the extreme measures. These are whales. This is less about compassion than it is about hubris, the presumption that nature makes mistakes that we humans are obligated to “correct.”