An amazing video was filmed which showed more than a dozen people helping a stranded whale in New Zealand.
Beached whales often die due to dehydration or by collapsing under their own weight on shore. Luckily, this orca was saved just in time as volunteers and army personnel worked to get it back into the sea.
The whale was found stuck on Marfells Beach until rescuers from a charity called Project Jonah and a group of army officers managed to move the mammal back into deeper waters
Army personnel were called to help dig a trench in the sand in order to drag the whale back into deeper waters
“We are thrilled to report that the re-float this afternoon was a success and the orca is now swimming freely in deeper waters!!” Project Jonah tweeted
The New Zealand Army added on Twitter saying, “Job well done, awesome teamwork by all involved!” The rescuers received tons of congratulatory messages online for their efforts in saving the beached orca.
New Zealand Defence Force personnel and local volunteers have banded together to free an orca stranded on a Marlborough beach for more than 24 hours.
The NZDF personnel and Project Jonah volunteers managed to drag the young marine mammal at high tide off Marfells Beach, near Seddon, about 1.30pm.
They used pontoons, or airbags, on either side of the orca to drag it into deep enough water, before it eventually swam off by itself.
The plan was for a boat to drag the animal that was discovered about 11.30am on Sunday out to sea, but the water was too rough.
The 6-metre juvenile, given the name “Lucy” by volunteers, was thought to weigh about 1.5 tonnes.
Department of Conservation staff, Project Jonah volunteers and medics had been working alongside locals to keep the animal alive.
About 25 military personnel arrived at the beach at 5.30am on Monday to build a trench to help drag the whale back out to sea at high tide.
Project Jonah volunteer Kiah Greenland said it was “the best outcome we could have had.”
She credited the hard work of the military and said it would not have been possible without their help.
Southern Katipo land component commander Brigadier Mike Shapland said the military received a call on Sunday night asking for people to help out, and each personnel member raised their hand to assist.
There was a “smorgasbord of military” helping out, including engineers and stewards, he said.
Shapland said it was a great way to help the community out and finish up their final week of Exercise Southern Katipo.
He hoped the orca would stay out at sea. “Nature will take its course now,” he said.
The Orca Research Trust founder Dr Ingrid Visser said while volunteers had to work to high tide, Lucy ultimately “made that choice to go”.
Project Jonah volunteers would stay at the beach for a few hours to monitor the whale and make sure it did not come back to shore.
DOC ranger Trish Grant said the orca likely got stranded looking for stingray to eat close to the shore.
She was not concerned about the pod of orca seen on Sunday night.
Anna McIntosh was one of the first people on the scene, arriving about 1pm on Sunday.
A neighbour put the call out. There were 50 or 60 people there by about 4pm, she said.
But the orca was not looking well on Monday morning, she said.
The orca had gone “quiet”, and the number of volunteers had dwindled off after the army arrived and dug the trench.
McIntosh said she had never seen an orca stranded in her eight years living about a kilometre from Marfells Beach, nor had neighbours who had lived there “for generations”.
“We’ve seen seals and things like that … It’s a juvenile, it’s not a fully-grown one so it’s questionable why it’s even happened.”
Volunteer Annabelle Latz helped on Sunday afternoon then returned at 10pm. The tide was coming in when she left just before midnight.
People put sandbags beside the killer whale to keep it stable and the efforts were “super organised”, she said.
A team of four people got buckets, four people put water on him and four people rested to take over if people got tired.
“Because everyone was doing what they were told it was a really nice atmosphere and really positive,” Latz said.
The orca was happy and relaxed when she was there, she said.
“The key is just to keep him wet so you don’t increase the internal temperature too much because that was the biggest concern.”
Latz said it was deemed too dangerous to re-float the dolphin at 2am high tide because there was a risk it would only get half way out to sea and co-ordinators did not want people in the water in the dark.
DOC ranger Chris Wootton said on Sunday the main thing was to keep the young killer whale upright, wet and calm until it could be safely re-floated.
“We’ve been through one high tide about 1pm [on Sunday] … but there weren’t enough people to actually move the orca.”
Wootton said the orca appeared to be in good health, but its body weight could cause issues if people tried to re-float it at the wrong time as the beach “shelves slowly”.
“If you go out about 100 metres [at low tide] it’s only knee deep … It’s been here for a fair amount of time, but the main risk now is that it’s tired.”