Final resting place for pilot whale is at district facility

Posted April 8, 2010
By Brittany Brown
Norfolk District Public Affairs

04/08/2010 - PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Norfolk District's dredged material management area serves many uses, which now includes a final resting place for a stranded pilot whale that was euthanized last week.

Representatives from the Virginia Aquarium and Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries came to the aid of an ailing pilot whale last weekend when it was stranded in shallow waters off the Elizabeth River near Craney Island in Portsmouth.

"After examining the whale's condition it was evident the whale was very sick. Members of the aquarium's stranding team euthanized the male pilot whale to relieve its suffering," said Trish Bargo, stranding team technician for the aquarium.

Bargo noted several setbacks in relocating the pilot whale Monday to bring it ashore at the Craney Island Dredged Material Management Area, or CIDMMA. One setback was marking the whale with a buoy during low tide when it was visible and strategically planning to tow the 2,000 pound mammal using high powered motorcraft during high tide.

With the help of Sea Tow, the Virginia Aquarium stranding team successfully towed the pilot whale to the east side of Craney Island Tuesday afternoon during high tide. Three Craney Island staff members, including facility manager Sam McGee, were on-site to provide assistance bringing the nearly 16-foot whale on shore at CIDMMA.

The team used a heavy-equipment excavator to place the pilot whale north of the bulkhead, just a few hundred yards where another stranded whale was buried in 2007 after it was found floating in the Hampton Roads harbor.

March 26, 2007 marks the date that Craney staff and the aquarium's stranding team buried a 60-foot, 20-ton female fin whale at CIDMMA. Seen floating in the waters near Lamberts Point in Norfolk, Va., the fin whale's cause of death was "direct contact with a large shipping vessel," according to aquarium officials.

"It's sad to see what happened to these mammals but we are here to help however we can," said B.J. Jackson, engineering equipment operator at Craney.

Jackson provided support to the marine biologists examining the pilot whale by lifting and shifting it so that the stranding team could assess the whale's condition.

Sarah Mallette, stranding technician for the aquarium, spent a great deal of time Tuesday afternoon measuring the pilot whale's lacerations, taking photographs of the mammal from various angles and documenting it's condition.

"The more we can document, the more we can learn," said Mallette, one of the aquarium staff members who performs mammal necropsies before burial at CIDMMA.

Like a human autopsy, the necropsy will provide clues to why the whale died. A necropsy will also include a full examination and dissection of the pilot whale to get blood and urine samples as well as the removal of vital organs to support research of pilot whales.

Since the stranding response program's inception more than 17 years ago, dedicated team members have responded to helping more than 1,500 marine mammals and 2,200 sea turtles. Averaging more than 200 per year, stranded animals have included harbor and harp seals, harbor porpoises, bottlenose dolphins, humpback whales, and loggerhead and Kemp's ridley sea turtles.