THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 6, 1996 TAG: 9602060283
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: OREGON INLET LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Bleeding from its sides after scraping against rare ice floes off the Outer Banks, a 40-foot whale struggled to get off a Pamlico Sound sand bar inside Oregon Inlet Monday night.
The mammoth mammal, believed to be a fin whale, was about 100 feet south of the channel - 1,000 feet west of the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge - when its belly hit bottom. Duck hunters reported the stranding to the Coast Guard about 2 p.m. At nightfall, the whale was still stuck.
Writhing in about four feet of water, with its head away from the ocean, the whale splashed its tail and sprayed saltwater from its blowhole all afternoon. A foot of his shiny black body remained above the water, appearing like a half-submerged submarine sticking out of the sound. A ring of blood flowed around his thick back.
``He seems pretty lively out there,'' Coast Guard Master Chief D. Griffin said shortly after sunset from his Oregon Inlet outpost. ``It looks like he got scraped up a bit on his side and belly from the ice - you know, like when you fall off your bicycle and skin your knee. But it doesn't appear that whale is in any immediate danger right now.''
How to free the whale was a giant puzzle for would-be rescuers - it was too heavy to airlift or shove off the sandbar. Biologists and Coast Guard officials agreed the animal needs to get back to sea to survive. But unless high tide helps him float enough to swim back through the inlet, they said the whale will probably perish just off the primary passage between the Outer Banks and the Atlantic.
``It's not like a 30-pound dolphin you can just toss in your boat andtake back out to sea,'' said National Marine Fisheries Service spokeswoman Vicky Thayer, who oversees North Carolina's Marine Mammal Stranding Network. ``Trying to tow a whale that size isn't a good idea, either. That could make the animal go into shock or even drown.
``I certainly hope it gets off that sandbar when high tide comes through during the night,'' Thayer said Monday evening from Beaufort. ``But sometimes, you have to respect nature and just accept what it does.
``Usually when large whales end up inside an inlet, something's wrong,'' said Thayer. ``The ocean is much warmer and deeper than the sound. That's where the whales should be. But this weather is extreme. There's a lot of ice out there you don't usually find off Carolina. And the water's colder than usual. That might've had an impact on this particular stranding.
``This time of year, though, those whales should stay south. It's a little anomalous for them to be traveling through here now. I don't have any idea what caused it,'' Thayer said. ``It's fairly unusual for a live whale of that size to turn up in the inlet.''
From an airplane circling above the channel, North Carolina Aquarium biologist Frank Hudgins said the stranded animal looked like a fin whale. Fin whales can grow to be 70 to 80 feet long, Hudgins said.
``Fin whales' winter range is from Maine to Florida. And that's what I'm gonna guess this is,'' Hudgins said. ``It's rare to see any whale like this in so close, though. Two years ago, a humpback washed in dead just inside the (Oregon Inlet) bridge. We usually spot a live one around here every other year or so.
``These whales are used to cold water. But stuck up there, high and dry, and not really able to move, I don't know how long this one'd make it,'' said Hudgins. ``Let's just hope when the tide comes in between 8 and 9 Monday night, it'll bring a couple feet of water and float that whale right out.
``Buoyancy - that's what you need to save that animal.'' ILLUSTRATION: DREW C. WILSON
The Virginian-Pilot
Believed to be a fin whale, the mammal was stuck in 4 feet of water
about 1,000 feet west of the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge
SPOTTING A STRANDED MARINE ANIMAL
Sea mammals often become stranded along the Outer Banks during
winter months. If you see a live or dead marine animal along any
North Carolina beach, call the National Marine Fisheries Service
office in Beaufort, (919) 728-8762, or the North Carolina Aquarium
on Roanoke Island, 473-3493.
by CNB