Sunday, 29 November 2009

Marine Mammal Medic

On Sunday 22nd November I headed of to a school in Miramar (nope - not Top Gun school!) to learn how to get stranded whales and dolphins back out to sea.

New Zealand has the most whale and dolphin strandings anywhere in the word - and thankfully the most number of rescues - with half of the worlds species of whales found in New Zealand waters. Pilot whales are the main culprit as they are very social and if one strands then often the rest of the pod also strand in attempts to help a stricken whale.

With that in mind I decided to head off on a Project Jonah course and become a Marine Mammal Medic. I had a great day learning a bit about whales and dolphins and the techniques used at a stranding and then in the afternoon popped over to Island Bay for a practical session rescuing Lionel the Vinyl immature Pilot Whale and 'PJ' the female Pilot Whale. All good fun which attracted quite a lot of interest from the locals who initially thought that we were dealing with real whales!

I'm now all set to head off and help at the next stranding in our local area!


Lionel the Vinyl Pilot Whale


PJ in a Whale rescue pontoon (Kiwi designed!)

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