Posted on 08/02/2002 1:45:47 PM PDT by ozone1
Wellfleet demands removal of decomposing pilot whales Town officials fret about the stench and a possible contamination of costly shellfish beds.
By DOUG FRASER STAFF WRITER WELLFLEET - The heroic, but futile effort to save 57 pilot whales this week made breaking news across the country and around the world.
Workers on the Wellfleet Shellfish Department boat Punonakanit tie pilot whale flukes together to make the whales easier to sink. The whales are to be towed today 50 miles north of Provincetown, to the east of Stellwagen Bank, and sunk in waters 300 feet deep. (Staff photo by KEVIN MINGORA)
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What probably won't make headline news is the problem of where to put more than 40 tons of rapidly decaying whales.
That was the problem yesterday confronting the Cape Cod Stranding Network as well as the National Marine Fisheries Service, which oversees both the stranding network and regulations that protect whale populations in U.S. waters.
By yesterday, the group spirit that pervaded attempts to rescue the whales earlier this week had begun to wear thin.
Wellfleet town officials gave an emphatic "No!" to using town boat ramps to load the 43 rotting carcasses onto trucks that would take them to a landfill.
"We do not want them in our harbor," said Selectman Michael May, who also works for the town's harbor master department. May was concerned that the town's prolific and valuable shellfish beds might have to be closed because of bacterial contamination from the intestinal tracts of the decomposing whales.
Wellfleet is the state's No. 1 aquaculture town with more than 100 grants and a combined harvest of more than $3 million from aquaculture and shellfishing.
Personnel from the stranding network did bring three dead whale calves up the Wellfleet town marina boat ramp Wednesday night.
"That was a horror show. They were intact, but starting to smell. We had a square dance going on and it took 15 to 20 minutes to move them from the boat to a truck," May said.
Putting the whales in a landfill was always Plan B, said Teri Frady, spokeswoman for the National Marine Fisheries Service. The preferred method was to sink them in deep water.
Last night the whales were towed from a spot just off Lieutenant Island to the tip of Billingsgate Shoal at the entrance to Wellfleet Harbor and tied to a mooring.
This afternoon, the fishing trawler Melissa Jane from New Bedford will collect the whales and tow them to a spot 50 miles north of Provincetown, to the east of Stellwagen Bank, where the water is 300 feet deep. The spot is closed to most fishing.
Tied in groups The whales are tied together in six groups of seven or eight individuals each. When the Melissa Jane gets to the disposal area, a 4,500-pound concrete highway barrier will be tied to the tails of each group so the whales will sink. This is a method that has been used successfully with gray whales in California, Frady said.
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Whales' tale
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday: 57 pilot whales strand at Chapin Memorial Beach in Dennis. Volunteers are able to keep 46 whales alive and herd them back into the sea; 11 whales die. Tuesday: The 46 whales beach again, this time off Lieutenant Island in Wellfleet. All die or are euthanized.
Wednesday: Whale carcasses are moved out to deeper water in Wellfleet Harbor and tied to a buoy.
Yesterday: The whales are towed to the tip of Billingsgate Shoal at the entrance to Wellfleet Harbor.
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After four days in the hot sun, the whales were in much worse shape yesterday.
Bloated and decayed, the whales started to pop in the sun, with the succeeding hiss of escaping gases. The smell, described by some as resembling limburger cheese, was overpowering.
New England Aquarium veterinarian Connie Merigo said the sodium pentathol used to euthanize the whales posed no threat to the environment or to the seabirds who started feeding on the carcasses yesterday.
The drug was not a poison, but a relaxant that put the whales to sleep, she said. It would not be in body fluids leaking into the environment but would be concentrated in deep tissues and the brain, far below the thick layer of blubber.
Stranding network spokeswoman Katie Touhey said the flushing rate of the harbor with its 10-foot tides was also capable of diluting any bacteria from the animals and washing it out to sea.
Fetid smell Still, the primary objective for yesterday was to get the whales further out of the harbor. To do this, volunteers fought off the fetid smell to tie the whales together in smaller groups. A constant armada of onlookers in kayaks and personal watercraft approached while they worked, but turned back 20 to 30 feet from the whales when they got a whiff.
The entire operation has cost the member organizations of the stranding network approximately $10,000, Touhey said. The network members include the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Pegasus Foundation, the New England Aquarium, the National Marine Life Center, the International Wildlife Coalition and the Humane Society of the United States.
Wellfleet officials could not yet say how much the whale rescue and disposal cost the town in employee hours, but the extra cost will be covered by a federal grant, May said.
The National Marine Fisheries Service will pay the cost of towing the whales to the disposal area, Frady said. She could not say yesterday how much it will cost.
In the meantime, Fred O'Regan, president and CEO of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, sent a mass e-mail Wednesday evening asking for donations to support the organization's Whale Protection and Emergency Relief teams and their partners in the Cape Cod Stranding Network.
"Our challenge today is to remind friends and family that although we couldn't rescue the 56 whales yesterday, there is still time to save thousands of whales every year by joining the campaign to stop commercial whaling."
The organization has been one of the most successful fund-raisers in the world for wildlife protection. In the fiscal year ending in June 2000, the organization raised more than $15 million, according to its federal tax return.
Mmm, that looks good, what does it taste like?
Replies he...
Oh, a lot like rotten chicken.
Ouch. I've got cats, and about the stinkiest thing they've ever brought me was a dead mouse or two.
Tomato soup (on the outside ;-) helps quite a bit. Lemon is good for people, but dogs get too much in their eyes.
Oysters taste better.
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