DATE: Wednesday, October 1, 1997            TAG: 9710010452

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   71 lines

STRANDED PYGMY WHALES TAKE A DOWNTURN

The mother and baby whale that were saved on the beach Friday have been doing well for several days, eating robustly and staying healthy.

But rescuers at the Virginia Marine Science Museum's stranding center found cause for concern Tuesday as the mother pygmy sperm whale seemed to lose her appetite and some of her kidney function.

The slight downturn in the mother's condition brought concern from team members about what to do with the large and messy animals that have received round-the-clock care and monitoring for four days.

The care-givers don't want to move mother and calf to a long-term rehabilitation center until they're well. But they can't keep them much longer in the museum's holding facility off Birdneck Road.

Pygmy sperm whales eliminate waste explosively, inking their surroundings with a dark chocolate cloud that soon overwhelms filters, discolors the tank and stains the wetsuits worn by rescuers.

Showers and disinfectant soap are in strong demand at the center as staff and volunteers take their turns in the small pool. Water changes help but not for long.

Their sanitary habits do not make the 9-foot-long creatures favorites of many aquariums. ``From a water quality standpoint, they're a nightmare,'' stranding team director Mark Swingle said.

Still, the team members, many of them volunteers, struggled to keep the great marine mammals alive. It's their mission and no one seems to be giving up.

Three of them, marine mammal specialist Susan Barco, veterinary technician Wendy Walton and Dave Schofield, a visiting expert from the National Aquarium in Baltimore, got in the tank Tuesday with the whales. They took turns feeding squid to the mother and giving the baby a vitamin supplement.

The mother, all 670 pounds of her, pushed against them as she arched her back, blew a cloud of spray and paddled with her great tail. That's a big change from her listless condition Friday when she and her baby were found beached on the sand at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

Barco held the mother gently and rubbed the food against the crease on the side of her mouth.

``Come on, baby,'' she said softly.

But the feeding didn't go as well as previous ones had. The whale took the food almost reluctantly and frequently spit it out, while the much friskier baby brushed against her.

The baby is nursing in the pool as well as receiving the vitamin supplements.

The consensus is that mother would not have beached herself if she had not been sick.

Dr. Bob George, a Gloucester veterinarian, said that although other signs have remained steady, her kidney function seems to have dropped suddenly.

The hope was that the whales could be moved to a long-term care facility such as the National Aquarium. But its pools are occupied, at least temporarily.

Meanwhile, the museum's staff and stranding center are not equipped to keep them much beyond one week, and the question becomes: Could they simply be released back to the ocean?

The criteria for release include signs of health and the ability to catch live food. Those questions have not been answered, especially for the mother.

Swingle said the center eventually may have to look at the option of releasing her to the ocean, but he added emphatically, ``We're not going to put her out there if she's not healthy.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

STEVE EARLEY\The Virginian-Pilot

Dave Schofield, of the National Aquarium in Baltimore, and Wendy

Walton, of the Virginia Marine Science Museum, feed a calf pygmy

sperm whale Tuesday. The tank is too small to hold the calf and its

mother, found Friday on the beach at Back Bay National Wildlife

Refuge, for much longer.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu