Whale Rescue Bid a Race Against Time

Below-zero temperatures and shifting winds continued to threaten three stranded whales Tuesday as rescuers readied for a dangerous, go-for-broke attempt to free the animals.

The effort has become a race against time, complicated by the wind, bitter cold and shifting ice. Observers said that the young California gray whales were tired and at least one has pneumonia. Their barnacle-encrusted snouts were worn raw from grating on the jagged ice surrounding the small breathing holes rescuers were keeping open.

The sickest whale was wheezing with water in its lungs and trying to rest its chin on a shelf of ice, said Ron Morris, rescue coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries service.

At Prudhoe Bay, about 200 miles to the southeast, an Army National Guard Skycrane helicopter was hooked onto a 185-ton ice-breaking barge owned by VECO Inc. for the tricky journey across the desolate Arctic Ocean to reach the whales.

Trip Delayed

But the trip was delayed for several hours when the barge became stuck in the ice, then again late Tuesday when the icebreaker’s performance proved unsatisfactory.

“We pulled the barge away from the dock,” said Col. Tom Carroll of the Alaska Army National Guard, who is commanding the effort. “It moved extremely slowly. Visibility is not good, and it’s beginning to get dark.”

Carroll later decided to call off the tow until today.

“We’ll go after it again at first light,” said Mike Haller, a National Guard spokesman.

The whales, whose length ranges from 24 to 40 feet, became trapped nearly two weeks ago while migrating south to warmer waters. They were hemmed in by new ice 18 miles northeast of this Inupiat Eskimo village. The whales are in shallow water only a few hundred feet offshore. They are about 7 miles from open water.

A few miles from the whales were eight polar bears hunting for seals, and Morris said the bears would have no compunction about making a feast of the weakened mammals. The bears pose enough of a threat that rescue workers now carry high-powered rifles.

The barge’s trip from Prudhoe Bay to Point Barrow was expected to take as long as 40 hours and crews must be careful, authorities said. If the tow cable were to snap and wrap in the helicopter rotors it could be disastrous.

Call From Reagan

Earlier Tuesday President Reagan telephoned Carroll to offer his support.

“I just wanted to tell you that everybody down here, their hearts are with you and our prayers are also with you,” Reagan said.

Last week, the ice around the whales’ breathing holes was so thin that biologists did not dare walk on it. By early Tuesday, the ice was 18 to 24 inches thick. The gray whales, despite their size and mass, have shown no inclination to bull their way through the ice pack.

As the world watched and waited, biologists and North Slope residents worked with chain saws to keep the whales’ small breathing holes open. One of the holes is 24 by 20 feet; the other, 24 by 10 feet.

Biologists said they were overwhelmed by the interest shown in the trapped whales. The drama has prompted scores of calls from people with ideas on how to free the animals. They ranged from using explosives or dropping bowling balls to break the ice to netting the animals for transport elsewhere.

“Every year, probably dozens of grays drown or are crushed by the ice, but nobody ever knows about it,” biologist Craig George said.

The whales spend their winters in the warm waters of Baja California.