Tranquilizer Dart Shot At Whale Is Lost At Sea

[Sefket]

Originally published: April 9, 2010 2:56 PM

Updated: April 9, 2010 3:09 PM

By JOHN VALENTI AND DEBBIE TUMA  john.valenti@newsday.com

Photo credit: Doug Kuntz/Doug Kuntz | David Morin of The National Marine Fisheries Service fires one of five darts into a beached whale on Thursday evening, April 8, 2010.

SOURCE

       

A scientist armed with a  hunting rifle shot the stranded humpback whale in East Hampton  Friday morning, after an earlier attempt to euthanize the animal resulted in a 2-foot-long tranquilizer dart being lost in the surf, sources said.

A team of divers is scheduled to search those waters for the dart on Saturday, officials said. The officials, who would speak only on condition they not be named, said federal officials believe the dart's tranquilizer had dissipated and does not pose a danger.

"They're 90-percent sure the thing is expended," one source told Newsday. "But the fear is, it is out there and fully loaded."

PHOTOS: Beached whale on Main Beach | VIDEO: Sedating the whale | POLL: Rate the rescue efforts

MORE: Guide to LI's beaches | Photos of LIers at the beach

Meanwhile, officials have declined to confirm whether the whale - beached for four days - is dead. A 4 p.m. news conference has been scheduled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Suffolk officials.

Onlookers gathered at the scene said the whale had been removed from the water by a payloader and was now on the beach. And scientists at the scene were overheard discussing which organs would be harvested from the whale for examination during a necropsy.

President of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, Chuck Bowman, confirmed the whale was shot at daybreak using bullets, after the dart strategy left it still alive in the morning. Bowman referred questions about the whale to NOAA.

Calls to several NOAA officials were not immediately returned.

The area surrounding the whale remained cordoned off Friday, keeping onlookers and the media about 200 yards away.

On Friday morning, observers reported hearing two shots at 9 a.m. and another about a half-hour later - the shots all fired by a man kneeling in the back of a pickup aiming a gun at the whale before the shots rang out.

The whale lifted its tail on the second shot.

After each shot, a group of people waded into the water alongside the whale and appeared to examine it.

William Rossiter, president of Connecticut-based Cetacean Society International, says euthanizing with bullets is very rare because it is so difficult to do.

"There have been all sorts of efforts to shoot whales and that has been terrible because people don't know where to shoot," Rossiter said. "You need to have an exact understanding of what you're doing to do it properly. You have to have exactly the right caliber stuff and know exactly where to aim. That's why people are going to the chemicals."

As morning dawned Friday, there were reports the whale had been euthanized.

The rescue program coordinator for the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, Kim Durham, later told Newsday that was incorrect - the whale had survived those euthanization attempts. It was unclear, however, if the missing tranquilizer dart was behind the failure.

The whale became stranded on the beach just east of a jetty early Tuesday. Specialists had attempted to euthanize the whale early Thursday, then again Thursday night.

The 20- to 25-foot whale was already weakened when it beached itself Tuesday, officials said. Scientists said it is unable to survive on its own.

Scientists said they believe the whale was headed from breeding grounds in the Caribbean to feeding grounds off the coast of New England.

Durham said finding the best way to euthanize the whale was a work in progress.

"Our biggest nemesis has been human safety," she said. "People ask, 'Why is this so difficult?' My response is, 'Have you not seen the fish?' "

- With Doug Kuntz

[lntoxicating]

I wish I were a whale.

[Vlooieneuker]

owned

mankind > fish

[Eric]

I wish I were a whale.

this

[gfdgfd]

I don't understand why one dart that could potentially paralyse, kill or just send ONE person unconscieous in a MASSIVE oceaon being lost is a big deal, good fucking lord my spelling is horrific tonight i actually am not sure if i spelt most of this right.

[HADUKEN]

I don't understand why one dart that could potentially paralyse, kill or just send ONE person unconscieous in a MASSIVE oceaon being lost is a big deal, good fucking lord my spelling is horrific tonight i actually am not sure if i spelt most of this right.

cause a fish terrorist might find it.

[Cholesterol]

I wish I were a whale.

ditch P90X and come to Ireland and I'll put you through Cholesterol's tank plan

[watch me tb]

wheres hancock when you need him..

[Jim]

Poor whale :[

[Lat]

^agreed... theyre worried about killing one person... in the OCEAN, where humans arent even supossed to be... anyways if i were a whale i'd team up with other whales and fuck up boats and shit