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Sunday, September 05, 2004
Pygmy sperm whale rescued near Davao naval station
By Stella A. Estremera
HAVE they already emerged?" was my drowsy albeit automatic reply as I answered my cellphone that was flashing "Happy LA" Saturday morning while still reeling sleepily from overnight work Friday.
"Uh, yes, there were four that already emerged, but something else arrived," was City Councilor Leonardo Avila III's reply.
Rewind...
Friday afternoon, the first Hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) emerged from the temporary hatchery at tbe Aboitiz property in Punta Dumalag, Matina Aplaya. Three more emerged later that night. And since there are 96 eggs in the nest, we were just waiting for the call when the majority would all be pushing out from under the sand.
It turned out that the emergency for the day wasn't about turtle hatchlings, but was about rescuing a beached whale.
The whale, a 107-inch (2.675 meters) female pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps), was found beached at the cove beside the Southeastern Mindanao Naval Station in Camp Panacan by Staff Sgt. Gabita, the duty marine, at around 5:30 a.m. Saturday.
Trained help
A series of phone calls and text messages then gathered an interesting group that seemingly only Davao conservationists can gather: City Councilor Avila who also chairs the Davao Gulf Management Council, trained marine mammal rescuers, Jay Evora of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources 11 (BFar 11) and Joy Sardoma of the Davao Gulf Management Council, a representative of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), who happened to be in Davao for a flight home to Manila after attending the Tuna Festival in Gen. Santos City, Ruby Thursday More and Medel Silvosa of the Philippine Eagle Foundation, and Petterson Galindez of the Aquamarine Protection and Preservation Alliance Inc. (Appa), which helped in the video and photo documentation of the first-ever systematic rescue of a beached marine mammal in the region.
Keeping the whale company and ensuring that it doesn't drown were personnel from the Special Warfare Group (Swag) made up of P02 Narciso L. Martinez, SN1 Ramon D. Camacho, SN1 Julius Y. Escalania.
City Councilor Ricardo Cabing arrived just before the BFar boat used to tow the whale docked, it was already near-noon by then.
With the expertise of everybody gathered at the Naval Station pier Saturday morning, the whale was properly identified, measured, documented, and named -- Stella.
Getting to know the pygmy
Pygmy sperm whales are small, the adult sizes ranging from 2.3 to 3.4 meters.
Its most distinguishing marks are a flat snout, a single blowhole slightly displaced to the left, and a pinkish underside. Characteristics that the beached creature had.
There has not been any record yet of pygmy sperm whale beaching hereabouts and thus the Davao conservationists again scored a first.
Guided by the whale experts of WWF through mobile phone, the whale was first led to the naval station pier where it was enclosed in a net for proper identification and measurements, as well as, to wait for guidance by the WWF representative's arrival.
After assessing what happened, the WWF deemed it necessary to tow the whale toward the open sea just off the tip of Samal.
"Kung sa cove kasi siya nag-beach ang orientation niya papunta pa rin doon kaya malamang kung itutulak lang natin ito pabalik sa dagat, babalik pa rin siya sa cove," Dr. Ingles from the WWF said.
"Kailangan siyang dalhin sa laot para hindi na siya makabalik then after releasing her wait until she's out of sight, and assign a person to monitor the cove just in case she returns," he added.
After the BFar boat arrived, the whale was finally wrapped in a "trapal" and tied to the boat's side where the rescue-volunteers held on to it while the boat chugged at less than half a knot speed.
But even before reaching the tip of Samal, the whale was appearing to be already in distress, thus it was decided to free it anyway and just guide it along.
"We don't think the whale can still stand the stress of being brought further on," Councilor Avila said, thus the groups decision to release it.
There was concern at first as the whale just floated on, albeit right side up. Had it floated on its side, or worse, upside down, then it's a definite sign that the whale will not be surviving the rescue attempt.
>From 12:15 to 12:45 p.m. it just floated. Logging, or getting its orientation, DGMC's Ms. Sardoma said.
Finally, the whale swam in that graceful manner whales do, cruising just below the surface and bobbing up to show its dorsal fin before descending anew. Several minutes later it finally disappeared from sight -- the Davao marine mammal rescuers have just made their first actual rescue with flying (or is it swimming?) colors.
Postscript: You may be wondering how the whale ended up with my name... Actually, Councilor Avila wanted to name it after the wife of Navy Commodore Calunsad. But no one in the group knew the wife's name. Thus, just before the whale was finally released from its makeshift stretcher cum harness, everyone was asking what to name it. I shouted my name, and surprisingly, no one objected. And thus the pygmy sperm whale was baptized.
(September 5, 2004 issue)
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