Beached Whale Dies Despite Rescue Efforts

The baby California gray whale trucked to Sea World after beaching itself last week at Santa Barbara died Monday, officials announced.

“She was just overwhelmed by infection,” said Sea World general curator Jim Antrim.

The whale died despite round-the-clock emergency care by the theme park’s marine mammal rescue specialists, who fed it and gave it antibiotics and vitamins.

The unnamed whale was being treated in the same chilly saltwater pool where J.J., the baby gray that beached itself at Venice in January, was nursed back to health. J.J., who was near death when she arrived at Sea World on Jan. 11, is now a robust 3,300 pounds and Sea World officials hope to release her in the ocean next year.

The latest whale, thought to be 3 months old, had apparently lost weight after being separated from its mother during the migration north from Baja California to the Bering Sea. Gray whales are dependent on their mothers for six to seven months.

The whale suffered numerous cuts and scrapes after rolling helplessly in the surf for hours, which could have led to its infections. After it beached itself on East Beach in Santa Barbara on Thursday, officials from the National Marine Fisheries Service gave approval for Sea World to attempt a rescue.

A necropsy was performed to determine whether the whale, which was dehydrated, 20% underweight and only semiconscious, died of pneumonia, a blood infection or other causes. In the days before its death, the whale was too weak to eat on its own.

“She just never responded well,” Antrim said. “She never seemed to perk up.”

Like J.J., the whale was given a sticky mixture of milk and pureed fish through a tube stuck down its gullet. Unlike J.J., the whale also received fluids intravenously because it was so sick. The intravenous procedure was thought to be a first for a gray whale.

“We tried to give her every chance possible,” Antrim said.

Sea World, a theme park set beside San Diego’s Mission Bay and owned by Anheuser-Busch, is part of a rescue network authorized and overseen by the National Marine Fisheries Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Only when federal officials are convinced that a stranded or beached marine mammal is in imminent danger of death is a rescue attempt authorized.

It is not unusual for mammals rescued by Sea World to be too underweight or racked by infection to survive more than few hours or days. In 1995, for example, Sea World rescued 68 mammals, but only 42 survived.

Once near extinction, the California gray whale has rebounded in recent years, and scientists estimate there are now about 25,000. About 1,000 calves are born each year, but an estimated one-third die within a few months.

Just why a mother whale would abandon its young is unknown. One theory is that the migratory instinct is so strong that the mother keeps swimming even if its offspring lags behind or gets lost in kelp.