The Baja California Travel & Living Webzine

Pygmy Whale Stranding in La Paz

A Pygmy Sperm Whale tale as it evolved in the Ensenada de La Paz.

By Guenter Trebbow on S/V Princess

Guenter is a long time friend and resident of the La Paz Mogote. He is a published author, restaurateur and Friday Cruiser's Net host. We thank him for the heart wrenching tale of man and nature in the Sea of Cortez and encourage others to help in the conservation of this unique place on earth and it's inhabitants in the Sea of Cortez.

It’s 10 AM July 12th 2006

It’s already a hot cloudless day.  Gretchen’s frantic barking called me on deck. Her front legs wide apart as she braced her self against the motion of the swaying boot while her body is shaking feverish, barking up a storm of attention. Her head stretched as far as it would go in the direction of the action she is been monitoring.

I follow her directive barking and discovered something big trashing in the shallow waters near the Mogote brush. Whatever it is, it is powerful and big, the trashing is fierce. It looks like a huge fish is trying to kill another big fish because I see lots of red and black and massive fountains of turbulent whitewash.
I decided to leave it alone. That’s just how the fish world is. One gets born to be eaten. I have seen it so many times except this is the biggest killing I ever saw.

Just as I turned to go down below again I realized that this is different. Something I can’t explain to myself. I changed my mind and turned back, kept watching it and finally decided to check it out, up close.
I asked Gretchen, a fifteen pound goat herding dog, if she wants to come and help. Her answer came by jumping in the dinghy then staring hypnotically at me. Her body told me to hurry up now that you have decided to go.

More below...
 

I saw the animal was a female about 6 feet long and probably 250 pounds. She had many wounds; some of them were older and others newer. As I got to know her more and more I found four deep propeller cuts on her underside and one deep cut on her tail fin that looked recent. Also her bellies underside was nearly bright red, which is not a normal color, except in the Amazon River there you find bright pink dolphins.
Her eyes were glazed over with a grey membrane so it seemed, indicating more abnormality. (However these whales may have a membrane, just like other sea-mammals.)

Every now and then she would curl up and trash around even while I gently petted her. I had the impression she was curling in pain. I watched her blowhole and sometimes she would release a little white foam with the air.

Much later we were told by Tim Means that Dolphins do not have blowholes, which would make this specimen a whale.

Gretchen took up her usual position on the bow, leading the way. The water became knee deep, so I anchored the dinghy. Gretchen jumped out and immediately went to investigate the creature stirring up the water and sand.

By now I saw that it was only one animal, a dolphin perhaps, caught up in shallow water and I thought to guide it back into deep water. As I came closer and closer I noticed that I was gently talking to the animal. It became quiet right away, I kneeled next to it and somehow I realized that this is a sick dolphin but the kind I had never seen before with a blunt snout and the mouth underneath, kind of like sharks have their mouth. I began to have my dough’s whether this is a dolphin but was so involved caring for it that I soon forgot my question about what it might be.

All I knew,-- this creature is in distress.
It let me touch and tenderly stroke its body while I whispered to it. It looked at me with eyes I could not read but I seemed to sense panic and pain.
The creature insisted on going in further into the man-grows waters into the shallows. I helped it, guided it were it could swim some and at other times I would take his fin and gently pull on it to change direction and maneuver it into the desired direction.

11 AM

As soon as I had her in a tranquil mood I went back to my boat to call for help.

Immediately the gang from S/V Sunbreak responded.
This is a passionate family with Allison the mother of three, (Willie 14, SAM 11 and Isabelle 9,) leading the group. They all came and helped to keep the animal wet and as comfortable as possible. Allison produced a white sheet to put on the back of the whale so she would not get sunburn.

My left hand was gently under the whale’s fin where I felt the huge heart pounding.  It seemed to pump regular and strong. The whale kept his eyes closed most of the time which led me to assume that it was focusing on the inner workings of his organs probably feeling pain.

4 PM

After a few hours Allison’s Husband Kevin came with a picture book on whales and after much discussion we identified the creature to be a pygmy sperm whale, a rare specimen we were told.
It was said that whales seek shallow grounds when they sense that they might die, because they are terrified of drowning in deep water. It was also said that they do

that as not to spread disease among the group they belong to.

Tom,  from the boat “Colosio” came to help the whale, keeping it wet and comfortable while we waited for the professionals to arrive. Eventually the Mexican navy responded by sending two men of which the leaders name is Antonio. 

There was no response from the university because everyone is on vacation.

6 PM

A person by the name of Tim Means who is supposed to know something about the wildlife here came to the scene as we were searching for help. He responded to our help call and came together with a reporter to document the event.

He was the one more or less insisting that a rope should be placed around the animal’s tailfin.  Then the small whale was brutally dragged out of his chosen dying spot with a rope around its tail and fastened on a beached ship wreck so it could not swim away again and die or recuperate dignified in some inaccessible spot. Most of us felt very uneasy about that maneuver. We would have preferred to leave the animal alone since it was deep into the man-groves with no where else to go. The whale expired tied to the wreck a little while after 6PM.

These two Navy soldiers placed the whale on the wetted sheet and heaved the creature into the panga. They then drove to Punto Colorado and released the whale to its element.

Alison’s family and I have made a promise to gather expert help, names and phone numbers; to learn all there is on whale / dolphin rescue and support.
We live on the water and are part of their world and should not be so painfully helpless.

It is a deep emotional experience to watch such a big creature fight for life and have nothing to offer, to make a transition smooth and painless.

We hope to do much better the next time.


Knowledgeable persons to call:
Louise Fleischer from the Fishing department. In La Paz, 612-122-4707

Additional Infomation

Pygmy Sperm Whale
Order Cetacea : Family Physeteridae : Kogia breviceps

Description. A small, toothed whale; upperparts, top of pectoral fins, and flukes blackish; under parts and upper lip, white; dorsal fin small, situated posterior to the mid-point on back, the tip pointing backwards; pectoral fin short and "spear-shaped"; blowhole an oblique crescent left of midline; mouth small and sub-terminal; snout blunt; skull short, broad, spongy, and markedly asymmetrical; left naris large, right one degenerate, as in the sperm whale; front part of skull deeply bowl-shaped; teeth small, slender, and widely spaced, 12-16 in each lower jaw; total length 2-4 m. Measurements of one whale: total length, 3.2 m; snout to anterior edge of dorsal fin, 1.7 m; height of dorsal fin, 76 mm; length of pectoral fin, 495 mm. Weight of adults, more than 300 kg.

Distribution : These whales are found in warm waters worldwide. These whales were once thought to be quite rare, but stranding records indicate they may be more common than originally believed.

Habits. This is a deep water, pelagic species about which very little is known. They occur in small groups of three to six individuals and appear slow and deliberate in their actions. Low frequency, low intensity, pulsed sounds have been recorded from these whales, suggesting that they may be capable of echolocation.

Their food habits are not well-known. Stomachs that have been examined contained carapaces and appendages of green crabs, shrimp, and beaks of squid.

Information available suggests that mating takes place in late summer and the young are born the following spring after a gestation period of some 9 months. The young calf stays with its mother during its first year, as judged from records of capture of pregnant females accompanied by offspring of the previous year. Newborns are about 1.2 m long and weigh 54 kg. Strandings of these whales may often be related to calving, as females with newborn young often strand, as well as females whose reproductive tract shows evidence of parturition just prior to stranding.