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Megaptera novaeangliae
One week-old baby humpback whale beached itself on Queensland's Gold Coast. After hours of work, a channel was dug, and the whale was pulled back into the ocean. The rescue was successful, but sadly, the baby wasn't able to locate its mother.
There were many people involved in the rescue, led by the team from Sea World. Despite the sad outcome, they all did a brilliant job of getting the young whale back out to sea as soon as possible.
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Sometimes things go better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekmMD8oYt...
These tragic events often bring out the very best in people. A sad story though.
Once a large whale like humpback, fin, blue, sperm, gray, etc. have beached it is my understanding their rib cage cannot support their weight on land and their lungs heart and other organs are crushed. Not so true of dolphin and smaller whales. So this young one would not have survived even if they could get it back in the water. Breaks my heart.
How sad! I guess it was too young to survive on it's own? Even if it is it would be extremely vulnerable to predation.
Oh this is so sad!
Hopefully someday they'll figure out (for sure) what causes this and resolve the devastating problem!