A 65-foot-long sperm whale became stranded in the shallows near Ningbo, China, and was towed back to the sea last week after a strenuous 20-hour rescue. Although the rescue was successful, the whale’s ultimate fate is uncertain. Strandings are difficult on sperm whales, and animals don’t always survive even if they are rescued. Bruce Mate, professor emeritus in fisheries, wildlife and conservation and the past director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center, stated that “the odds are quite difficult.”

The whale was found floundering in the shallows by fishers on April 19. Video from China’s state news channel showed the animal flapping its tail, unable to move its body. As the tide went out, the 62-foot-long whale was left lying on its side on a mudflat, in danger of suffocating under its own weight or dying of dehydration. Heat is among the greatest dangers to a stranded sperm whale, and getting rid of body heat is done in a variety of ways, including water contact with the skin, especially at thin structures, like flukes and flippers, and very vascular areas, like the tongue. It is not possible for the whale to do this when it is out of the water.

Local authorities attempted a rescue with five boats, but the whale was too large to move. Volunteers used buckets to douse the whale with water as they waited for the tide to rise. Finally, at 10 p.m. local time, the water rose enough for a tugboat to pull the whale deeper into the ocean. At 5:30 a.m. local time on April 20, authorities were able to cut the ropes towing the whale, and the animal began swimming independently.

Given its size, the whale was probably an adult male. Sperm whale females and juveniles live in pods. When a female, calf, or young male in a pod strands, the rest of the pod may follow it, drawn by the stranded whale’s distress cries. The result is often mass death. Adult males, in contrast, live alone. That means the adult male in Ningbo also stranded alone, limiting the damage to the population as a whole.

Strandings can occur for different reasons. In some cases, there is something wrong with the whale that affects its ability to survive in the long run. Not long after a mass stranding in Oregon in the early 1970s, another calf was found in the same area, floundering in the shallows. More than two dozen members of the whale’s pod hovered just offshore, seemingly poised to follow the distressed calf. Mate and other biologists and volunteers managed to get the calf out of the water so it could no longer communicate with its pod. To the researcher’s relief, the other whales turned away and swam back out the sea.

In conclusion, the rescue of the sperm whale near Ningbo, China, highlights the challenges of rescuing large marine mammals in distress. While the rescue was successful in this case, the ultimate fate of the whale remains uncertain. Strandings can be caused by a variety of factors, and in some cases, it is difficult to save the animal.

Nevertheless, efforts by local authorities and volunteers to rescue stranded marine mammals should be applauded as they help to minimize the damage to the population as a whole.

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