THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 7, 1996 TAG: 9602070416
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: OREGON INLET LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
Freddy the 40-ton fin whale still isn't free.
The 40-foot mammal, stuck on its stomach in the shallow Pamlico Sound, continued its agonizing struggle to get off a sand bar west of this Outer Banks inlet Tuesday evening.
From their boat anchored alongside the enormous animal, Coast Guardsmen watched helplessly as Freddy fought to return to the deep, warm waters of the Atlantic.
Biologists say that when whales beach themselves they're usually ready to die.
But Freddy seemed to be exhausting all its energy trying to stay alive.
Smacking its left flipper furiously against the water's surface and splashing its wide rubbery tail, the whale is stuck in the mud in about 3 feet of frigid water. More than a foot and a half of its shiny black back sticks above the surface. Its side is scraped and bleeding, probably from rubbing against the rare ice chunks floating on the sound.
The whale's struggle upset Coast Guardsman Allen Hunter, who waded from his boat through thigh-deep water Tuesday to pat the animal.
``He doesn't look like he's going anywhere,'' Hunter said sorrowfully. ``But he doesn't look like he's ready to die either.'' Stroking the whale's flat head, Hunter asked Freddy: ``How'd you get in here anyway? What's wrong, partner? What can we do for you?''
As Hunter sympathized, the whale rocked endlessly. It splashed and thrashed and seldom rested in its tireless effort to get back to sea. About every 30 seconds, the whale rolled slowly onto its left side and raised its head - until its blowhole appeared above the surface. The whale sprayed salt water a few feet into the air, then, emitting a noise that sounded like a giant sigh, rolled back slowly until much of its body was submerged. Just breathing seemed to be a tremendous effort.
The time between spouts lengthened as night fell. By dark, Freddy was breathing only every 45 seconds.
``Looks like he's trying to swim - or, at least, to get loose so he can swim,'' Coast Guardsman Ross Fowle said from the helm of his 21-foot boat.
``I feel sorry for it,'' Fowle said. ``The poor thing's so stuck. He looks like he's in pretty sad shape right now.''
Biologists aren't sure why the whale, dubbed Freddy by Coast Guardsmen even though they don't know its sex, lost its way in the Atlantic and ended up inside the shallow sound sometime Monday, when duck hunters spotted it.
Tuesday afternoon, Freddy was about 2.5 miles west of the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge, almost a half-mile south of Oregon Inlet - which separates Hatteras Island from northern Outer Banks beaches. It had moved about 400 yards closer to the channel since Monday night and spun 180 degrees around.
``We were hoping high tide would help the whale get back to the ocean. But the tides don't seem to be helping enough. It's not a good sign that he hasn't gotten out on his own,'' said National Marine Fisheries Service spokeswoman Vicky Thayer, who oversees North Carolina's Marine Mammal Stranding Network.
``We're not giving up. I'm always hopeful. But this is not a good situation,'' Thayer said. ``This just shouldn't have happened. Whales shouldn't be in such shallow water.''
A dead whale washes up along the Outer Banks about every other year, aquarium biologists say. Finding live whales so far inland - especially stuck in an inlet - is relatively rare, they say. A whale as large and lively as Freddy is especially unusual.
``There's a lot of concern out for this whale,'' Thayer said. ``There's a lot of expertise trying to figure out how to save it.''
For the past two days, scientists and stranding experts from Massachusetts through Florida have been discussing different ways to rescue Freddy.
Weighing more than five full-grown African elephants, the fin whale is too heavy to airlift out of the inlet. Trying to tow Freddy across the sand to a deeper channel would severely damage its belly - if not kill it outright, Thayer said. And since the whale is sitting solidly on the bottom, divers can't attempt to float it like they do submerged shipwrecks because there is not space to fit air bags under its broad belly.
Some people even have suggested dredging a special channel around the whale so it could swim back through the inlet. But the sound near Freddy is too shallow for a dredge, Coast Guardsmen say.
``Even if you could, somehow, push that whale out of the inlet, he'd just come back ashore on the beach five miles south of here,'' said Wayne Gray, a patrolman for the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Service. ``I'm speaking from my own opinion - not for the state. But that whale came ashore because it was sick. Do you think a sane whale would end up in that inlet?''
This morning, an official with the National Marine Fisheries Service is scheduled to visit the whale with Coast Guardsmen. The biologist hopes to determine Freddy's condition and assess its chances for survival. Without any other options available until then, Coast Guardsmen spent Tuesday just keeping watch over the whale - and keeping it company.
``I wish we could help you,'' Hunter told Freddy shortly before the Coast Guard boat headed back to the Oregon Inlet station, leaving the whale alone for the night. ``But I just don't think there's much we can do.'' MEMO: If you see a stranded sea mammal on the Outer Banks, call the National
Marine Fisheries Service office in Beaufort, (919) 728-8762 or the North
Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island, (919) 473-3493.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot
Coast Guardsman Allen Hunter wades to Freddy's side Tuesday. The
40-ton, 40-foot-long fin whale became stranded Monday and neither
its efforts or those of would-be rescuers have been able to free it
from the Oregon Inlet.
by CNB