4th
April
Hi
all,
A special welcome
to all the new members of the BDMLR News ..... there are quite a
few of you !
Here are a
couple of BDMLR News items as well as some stories from farther
afield.
Thanks to those
who have contributed.
Cheers,
Tony
Woodley
BDMLR OnLine
Exmouth Rescue/Training
Co-ordinator
BDMLR
Marine Mammal Medics rescue adult seal from Chelsea Creek, London
31st March/1st April 2004
Volunteers
from British Divers Marine Life Rescue were called to a stranded
Harbour seal on the banks of the River Thames late on Wednesday
afternoon.
Marine Mammal
Medic, Gavin Parsons, literally dashed to the scene to assist the
London Fire Brigade. Gavin rushed to the location on foot from where
he was working, 
near to the Tate Modern Art Gallery. It took him about 20 minutes
to reach the London Fire Brigade Lambeth river pontoon. [ pic :
Chelsea creek area ]
The seal, an
adult female, was coated in the thick mud when Gavin arrived on
the Lambeth Fire Boat. Gavin said, “I thought she was dead
at first but then I saw her breathing”. “Chelsea”,
as the seal has now been called, was then put onto a ‘body
bag’ and dragged on to the Fire Boat where she was washed
off. “When we washed the mud off her it seemed to perk her
up, although she was obviously very weak”, said Gavin.
Further BDMLR
Medics arrived at the location and the seal was transferred to a
‘seal box’ at the Fire Brigades pontoon at Lambeth.
After an initial assessment, arrangements were made to transport
Chelsea to the RSPCA’s Wildlife Hospital near Kings Lynn,
Norfolk.
Gavin arrived
with Chelsea at the Wildlife hospital at approximately 1.00am on
the 1st April. Chelsea was immediately examined by RSPCA staff and
she was put on a drip to start her rehabilitation.
The latest
news from the wildlife hospital is that she remains on the drip
but is very thin and faces a difficult few hours. She was described
as “ticking over” by an RSPCA hospital worker.
It is not unheard
of for seals to travel up the River Thames and there is a small
colony of Harbour seals near the mouth of the River.
Further updates
on her condition can be obtained via the ‘Latest News’
section of the BDMLR website ‘Home’ page.
( source :
BDMLR Press Release )
Seal rescued
from mud in Chelsea creek
2nd April,
2004
Almost invisible
in the thick black mud, the only sign of anything amiss in Chelsea
creek was a pair of large brown eyes peering out from the shore.
Unknown to
people strolling by the river, a lone female seal was fighting for
her life, trapped in the mud. 
She was spotted
by the Harbour Master and the RSPCA was called. It was soon determined
a rescue from the shore was too dangerous because of the thick mud.
Luckily for
the seal, the Fire Brigade offered to use one of its boats. Two
fire-fighters and seal expert Gavin Parsons got within yards of
the stricken creature but as darkness fell they almost failed to
spot her.
" The poor thing was almost invisible," said Mr Parsons.
"We almost stepped on her. She didn't put up a fight.
"Had we
not got there, she would have drowned within an hour when the tide
came in. We bundled her into a body bag and dragged her across the
mud back to the boat."
The seal was
washed and examined. She could barely lift her head and the team
considered putting her down.
"Then
she began to move her head and it was decided to transport her to
an RSPCA centre in Norfolk," said Mr Parsons, a volunteer with
British Divers Marine Life Rescue.
A spokesman
for the centre, which has named the seal Chelsea, said she was fighting
for her life. "Chelsea is infested with lungworm, and half
her usual weight. It is touch and go, but we're hopeful if she can
get through the next day or two she will survive."
Seals have
been returning to the Thames for two years after a five-year absence,
attracted by the growing number of fish in the cleaner water.
( source :
www.eveningstandard.co.uk )
Montrose
BDMLR Rescue Grey Seal - Ferryden, Scotland
3rd April, 2004
April 3rd Montrose
Medics Elaine Roft, Bob Pert & Melvin Price were called out
to a juvenile Grey hauled out on a grass verge near to Michael Griese's
horses field in Ferryden. Upon arrival, the grey named "Selkie"
was frothing at the mouth / mucous membranes were white / light
brown diarrhoea / umbilicus appeared to be infected / and the seal
had alopecia to the right upper head and neck area.
12.30 "Selkie"
was uplifted by Medics Bob Pert, Mel Price and Elaine Roft after
the seal had regulated its own body temperature and the mucous membranes
had returned to being a healthy pink colour - not without some problems
with angry, determined, seals and ever encroaching waves!!
"Selkie" was transported to Robsons (vet) by Bob and Mel
where a thorough examination was given. Injected with 1ml synulox
i/m, alert, responsive / good body weight / temp slightly high.
Apart from the alopecia, and possible infected umbilicus,with diarrhoea,
the seal was generally in good health. Meanwhile, Elaine stayed
at Ferryden where James Barnett was notified of the seals condition
and details of another 2 call-outs taken.
From the vets
"Selkie" was then transported to New Deer rehabilitation
facilities for further treatment and observation.
James Barnett
requested that Laurence Brain take a skin biopsy for analysis to
be sent to him, to see if the cause of the alopecia could be determined.
Infected umbilicus to be looked at also by Laurence and medication
to be given as required before the seal is returned back to the
wild.
Thanks to Hillside
Post Office's Joe Wishart for allowing Bob and Mel to dry themselves
off in their back room, and to Wilma and Johnie Thomson of the Esk
hotel in Ferryden for provision of Elaines changing room and clean
dry socks!
Elaine
Roft
British Divers Marine Life Rescue
Montrose Area Coordinator (covers Inverbervie - Easthaven)
Divers rescue
'stranded' whales
4th April, 2004
Divers have
been taking part in a training exercise to rescue a group of whales
"stranded" off the coast at North Tyneside.
The event at Cullercoats on Sunday was organised by the British
Divers Marine Life Rescue team (BDMLR).
It aims to
train volunteer marine mammal medics to assess, assist and rescue
any whale, dolphin, porpoise or seal that gets into difficulty.
The mass stranding
exercise simulated a number of whales coming ashore.
Rescue
service
Members of
the Coastguard, RNLI, Environment Agency and North Tyneside Council
were also involved in the exercise.
It comes just
weeks after BDMLR rescuers were called to free a 15-ton beached
whale from a sand bank off the Lincolnshire coast.
In spite of
the efforts of the team, the young male did not survive.
BDMLR was formed
in 1988 in response to the deaths of a number of Harbour seals in
the Wash area of East Anglia.
They now provide
a 24-hour marine animal rescue service, train 400 volunteer people
a year and have 20 whale rescue pontoons located at strategic points
throughout the UK.
( source :
www.news.bbc.co.uk )
Moving Luna
3rd April, 2004
VICTORIA,
BRITISH COLUMBIA - Plans to reunite Luna, a U.S.-born killer whale
who's spent more than two years alone in waters off Vancouver Island,
with his American pod will be announced Monday.
The federal
Department of Fisheries and Oceans plans a news conference in Vancouver
to announce plans for Luna's relocation from Nootka Sound.
A department
spokeswoman said no information would be released before then.
Plans
to reintroduce the whale to his family, L-pod, will also be announced
Monday, said Michael Harris, president of the Seattle-based Orca
Conservancy.
The U.S. and
Canadian governments are cooperating in an effort to reunite the
4-year-old orca with his relatives, who spend much of the year chasing
salmon near Washington state's San Juan Islands.
Harris said
there is general agreement that the least invasive and cheapest
method should be tried first.
L pod has already
been seen off the coast of Washington.
The region's
killer whale pods are fish-eaters that spend months in the waters
between Vancouver Island and the inland U.S. and Canadian coasts.
It is not known where they spend winters, though they've been seen
off California and Alaska.
The reunification
attempt could take place in the next few weeks, Harris said.
Although it
would be ideal to reunite Luna with his original pod, any of the
pods would be likely to accept him, he said.
"We know
these whales take care of each other, sometimes in very adverse
situations," he said.
Luna is notoriously
social, bumping noses with boats and getting too close to tourists
for his safety or theirs.
"Right
now he's playing with the sea lions, he's so bored, and Steller
sea lions play pretty rough," Harris said.
( source :
www.komotv.com )
Whale worship
in Vietnam
3rd April,
2004
Hundreds of
mourners have paid their respects to a dead whale that washed up
on a beach in Vietnam, where the giant mammal is revered and considered
a deity.
The corpse
of the 25-metre long whale was discovered on Thursday by a fisherman
in the southern Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre.
Since then
hundreds of people have turned up to burn incense sticks and pray,
according to an official from the Thanh Hai commune.
He says local
fishermen are planning to take the whale's skeleton once it decomposes
to put into a shrine
Whale funerals
always attract large crowds along Vietnam's extensive coastline
but authorities, discourage such traditions, fearing they could
take people's loyalty away from the ruling Communist Party.
( source :
www.abc.net.au )
Stranded whale
loses battle - Australia
2nd April, 2004
A WHALE that
beached itself on the banks of the Harvey Estuary at the weekend
has renewed hopes that the Dawesville Channel is allowing new and
different species to come into the Mandurah area.
The rare 5m,
one-tonne grey's beaked whale was found by Mandurah citizen Terry
Ware at 11am on Saturday.
This follows
a pair of whales that were seen frolicking in the channel last winter.
Mr Ware's wife
Joy spoke to the Mail about how her husband first thought the animal
was a dolphin, but then realised it was too big.
"Terry
called me and when I arrived down at the water, the whale was thrashing
around a bit because it had its belly embedded in the mud,"
Mrs Ware said.
"It calmed
down after we patted it a bit, but it took off when wildlife officers
tried to put it in a sling to carry it out into the water again.
"It must
have come back and beached itself again about four times after that,
but it finally swam off down the estuary at about 1pm."
Senior wildlife
officer Doug Coughran specialises in marine wildlife operations,
and unfortunately had to break the news that, what he believes was
the same whale, had beached itself off Garden Island again on Monday.
Mr Coughran
said that, in the process of transportation out to sea again, the
whale had gone into shock and passed away.
"These
sorts of whales are notorious for stranding," Mr Coughran said.
"They
usually spend most of their life hunting and chasing food in the
deep trenches of the ocean, and they get disoriented when they come
in close to shore.
"Some
grey's beaked whales start interpreting their information differently,
causing them to come in even closer to land, and some are simply
just sick or old.
"In this
particular case though, I believe the whale was aged between 10-15
years, so it was probably very sick anyway."
Mr Coughran
said anyone who finds a stranded whale should not try to push it
out to sea, because it is most likely it would just return to the
land again.
"You should
keep it in the water, but prevent it from restranding itself,"
he said.
"If it
is pushed out to sea, it will just come back in again and damage
its belly even more.
"The best
thing to do it phone the Department of Conservation and Land Management,
CALM, an animal rescue group or someone with some good base knowledge
to hold the fort until authorities get there."
( source :
www.mandurah.yourguide.com.au )
Entangled
Right Whale 'Kingfisher' - Update
Update,
4/3/04: At 9:30pm, 4/2/04, the telemetry buoy that had
been the primary tool for tracking this whale, moved into the harbor
at Cape May, New Jersey and stopped. The captain of a fishing vessel
based in Cape May, New Jersey, called the Disentanglement Network
hotline this morning to report that he had Kingfisher's telemetry
buoy aboard his boat. He reports that he apparently ran over the
buoy's tether during a tow yesterday morning and that he retrieved
the buoy along with approximately 30 feet of tether line. The buoy
was believed to be towing only 50 feet behind the whale at the time.
It is not believed that the whale itself was hit.
Without any means of systematically finding this whale, every aspect
of planning for another disentanglement attempt on Kingfisher has
now changed. Disentanglement and technical teams will continue preparations
of equipment and techniques for another attempt, but will now stand
down from logistical planning. If and when the whale is resighted
opportunistically, by mariners or aerial surveys, it will first
be responded to by one of 15 disentanglement first response teams
along the US/Canadian coast. At this point, there is no reasonable
way of predicting when, where or if Kingfisher will be found.
The distance
covered by the buoy between satellite fixes while it was towed by
the whale was 849 nautical miles. The buoy has been retrieved from
the vessel by the Coast Guard in Cape May and will be returned to
service in the Disentanglement Network.
[ Center for
Coastal Studies : click HERE
]
lasts
for a few days and the quota of 62,000 seals was reached quickly
this year. The bigger quotas are taken in the ‘Front’
an area of f Labrador and Newfoundland. In total more than 15,000
sealing licences were issued during 2003. 
I
guess this particular sealer was not happy that we had recorded
his poor efforts on video and turned his attention to us. The terms
of our observational permit meant that we had to remain a minimum
of 10 meters from the sealers but he was now heading straight towards
me with his club held up in both hands against his chest. I had
a flash back to the DFO office where we were interviewed and given
our permits, here we saw an enforcement officer wearing a fire arm
on her hip. It would have been comforting to see her now.
testing
the ground in front of us - we made it back to safety with nothing
worse than a wet boot. At the time I remember thinking this must
happen often as Andrew seemed calm and in control. When the helicopter
took off he suddenly seemed colourless and explained that that was
his closest call to date.
[
Pic : Skinned pup. To view the full size and complete image click
