Public, official responses fail to save whale stranded in Guangdong, but efforts bode well for Chinese marine protection
SOCIAL
By Zhu Yingmin

2017-03-19 11:56:17

‍A female sperm whale stranded off the coast of south China’s Guangdong Province earned quite a following this week, with locals giving her the nickname “Wave Baby.” But despite an attempted rescue lasting 75 hours, she died on Wednesday, along with her unborn whale calf.
The whale was first spotted by a man named Mr. Lin last Sunday morning in waters near Huizhou City. After he contacted local authorities and put the word out via social media, two ships and three divers from a local diving club rushed to the scene and cleared the area of fishing nets. Other friends of Mr. Lin, many of whom work in related fields, also went to help.
VCG Photo
Wave Baby appeared to be heading out to sea at that point, but she returned to dangerously shallow waters on Monday.
That night, Huizhou-Shenzhen rescue forces began a joint operation with fire departments, working in shifts to try to free the whale. "There is nowhere to sit so we have to stand, and to avoid having to take toilet breaks, everyone basically drinks nothing, but no one complains,” one of the officials told local media.
VCG Photo
The rescue operation continued into Tuesday.  Although there were more than a dozen experts from fishery administrations, marine research centers and reserves discussing the situation and attempting different rescue plans, none of them worked.
On the fourth day, Wave Baby died. Even more sadly, a calf was found inside of her during an autopsy in the evening.
The sperm whale is the largest of the toothed whales, and it is classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Their total number is thought to be in the hundreds of thousands. The species has been widely hunted for spermaceti to produce cosmetics and candles, and ambergris, a substance used in the perfume industry. 
VCG Photo
VCG Photo
Currently, their greatest threats include entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with boats, which could be the cause in this case, according to the joint experts group. They suspect that Wave Baby was hit by ship, then entangled in fishing nets, and finally drifted into the shallow waters. The team has promised a full report will be published within a month.
VCG Photo
Despite the sad ending, this has become a landmark event in national marine protection, showing increasing awareness of the topic among Chinese people, as well as indicating the possibility for cooperation between citizens, NGOs and the government.

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