Louisa Hawkes: Project Jonah Volunteer Manager on the efforts to save the pilot whales stranded on Farewell Spit

The large majority of about 50 pilot whales stranded across Farewell Spit near Nelson have returned to sea. 

DOC and Project Jonah crew have returned to the site of yesterday's stranding, helping cool the creatures in the rising sun. 

Some mammals appear to still be stuck on the high tide line, with only a small window of time to get them out to deeper water. 

Project Jonah Volunteer Manager Louisa Hawkes told Andrew Dickens they've had a tough night. 

She says that six whales died overnight, but 15 are still alive, and the rest of the pod appears to have swum off and stayed in deeper water. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
A part of fifty three Pilot. Whales are currently stranded
on Farewell Spit. Local Medexit departmenter conservation staff and the
local we all did what they could, but unfortunately they
couldn't stop the stranding. They've been there over night, so
we'll cross there now. Project Jonah volunteer manager Louisa Hawks
is with us. Good morning to Louisa, Good morning, all right,

(00:38):
how did the whales hold up overnight?

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Oh? Well, we've been on the beach since about half
about five this morning and we have found fifteen whales
alive and six have passed away overnight, but the rest
of the part appear to have swum off and stayed
in deeper water at this stage.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Well done, and well done to you and the volunteers.
And how many volunteers do you have.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
Eli, We have already taken through twloads going to the
whales there about two k's down the spit. So we
love volunteers who get up nice and early in a
ready to go for a long day. And there'll be
more throughout the day as well, keeping the whales just.

Speaker 4 (01:17):
Nice and cool.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
As that sun comes up, they're going to heat up
pretty quickly, being big, big animals with black skin, so
we want to keep them as cool as we can
until the tide comes in mid afternoon today.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Do you think you'll finally have total success?

Speaker 4 (01:31):
It really depends on the whales and how they're feeling. Obviously,
then it's a pretty rough and they are a pretty
tight knit group, so they need to make sure that
everybody's feeling all right before they go out. They will
go out as a pod rather than as individuals, So
we just hope if we can keep them nice and
cool and calm and give them their opportunity this afternoon

(01:51):
to refloat, that they take that and head out.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
They are on the high tideline though, which means we've
only got a really short window of time to get
them refloated and moving out to deeper water.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
What is it about Farewell Spit that whales seem to
not be able to help themselves but get themselves strained?

Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yes, okay, well it's quite a lige sandspit that juts
out into the Cooke Street and so straight away that's
going to be pretty hard to navigate. A few use
co location. But on top of that, the tidal range
here can be up to ten kilometers, So while these
whales are swimming around in the water, if they come
into the shallows, by the time they realize they're in trouble,

(02:29):
sometimes the tide has disappeared before they can turn around
and move out deeper water.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
All right, well, carry on with a good work, and
I thank you so very very much for your time
and wish everybody, all the volunteers, all the very best
of luck. And we thank you for more from News Talks.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
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