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By CHRISTINA HEADRICK © St. Petersburg Times, published October 14, 1998
It wasn't an easy job. The whale, tentatively identified as a Gervais' beaked whale, weighs between 1,200 and 2,000 pounds, which is about the same as a Toyota Tercel.
With the beaked whale, the task required about two dozen men and a Ryder rental truck. The whale might die anyway. But it survived the ride late Tuesday to Mote Marine Laboaratory, said spokeswoman Virginia Haley. Mote workers tried to soften the jarring ride for the whale with an inflatable boat, rubber pads and tubs of water. "It's very rare for such an animal to survive getting stranded," said Melody Baran, a marine biologist with the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. "With species that get stranded seldomly, it's especially hard to know what's wrong." The rarity of the whale was a bigger deal than its size, Baran said. Little is known about this kind of whale, which look like oversized dolphins and stay off shore in deeper waters. The spectacle drew a crowd of more than 250 people to the beach Tuesday who tried to get a better glimpse of the beaked whale while it was guarded and monitored by biologists in 3-foot-deep water. Some people spent all day watching, from the time the whale first appeared about 8:30 a.m. until about 7 p.m. The whale probably arrived in Redington Shores after making a brief appearance in St. Pete Beach, where some swimmers moved it out of shallow water near the Don CeSar Beach Resort and Spa about 7 a.m., Baran said. "It brings out a motherly instinct in you," said Kim Bailey, who was vacationing with her husband and five children from Orlando. Her knowledge of whales is limited to Sea World, she explained. "I just want to make sure he's okay. Plus, it's really interesting to see these people do their jobs." "I haven't ever seen a crowd like this whale has gotten," said Tom Armstrong, who has lived near the beach for 10 years and seen other animals get stranded on the sandbars. Occasionally, the whale flipped its tail and raised its head out of the water, showing a pair of 11/2-inch teeth that protruded out of its bottom jaw. The creature's gray body and white belly were covered with scars, perhaps from tussles with other whales. Its skin felt like a wet inner tube. Mote staff gently nudged the whale away from the shore through the day. They took a blood sample from the tail and determined the whale's immune system was pretty weak. Nancy Wohnoutka, an intern from the University of Minnesota, carefully jotted down each time the whale breathed. "To get this close is really great," Wohnoutka said. "I can't believe it." Mote staff, who recalled only three other beaked whales being beached locally, debated whether to move the whale all day. Of the other beaked whales that have landed nearby in the last three years, two died in transport, Baran said. A third was found dead. Ultimately, they decided the whale seemed able to make the trip to Mote. The Clearwater Marine Aquarium's recovery pool, only 40-feet wide, was probably too small and already home to a dolphin. At Mote, the whale was to be placed in a 250,000-galloon lagoon dug out of the earth, which is a bit bigger than an Olympic swimming pool. Said Mote staffer Mary Kmetz, "He's now a critical care patient."
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EDINGTON SHORES -- A rare 13 1/2-foot beaked whale, which beached itself Tuesday morning just off Redington Long Pier, was transported to Mote Marine Aquarium in Sarasota for medical treatment at sunset.
