Send this page to someone via email Two grey whales have been rescued after getting beached in South Delta Friday. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans said the whales were discovered “partially stranded” in low tide off Centennial Park in Boundary Bay just before 4 p.m. Officials from the Vancouver Aquarium said the whales are a mother and her calf. The DFO said the whales were still alive when they were found, launching a rescue mission to get the animals back into the water with help from Delta police officers. “They just went too far and got caught up in the tide,” DFO’s marine mammals coordinator Paul Cottrell told Global News soon after the whales were discovered. Story continues below advertisement Our @vanaqua Marine Mammal Rescue team is on site at Boundary Bay, as DFO monitors trapped mother and calf grey whales. Tide is coming in now, so the hope is they will soon be able to swim away. pic.twitter.com/a2OsPvcjRj — Ocean Wise (@OceanWise) May 11, 2019 “The tide has just changed so we’re going to assess that going forward, and hopefully be able to refloat them and get them back into deeper water.” Cottrell added several people were in the water getting a look at the whales, and warned those spectators to stay at least 100 metres back for their safety. WATCH: The tide is coming in and things are looking good as rescue workers look to save two grey whales that got stuck near Boundary Bay. Catherine Urquhart reports. 1:17 Signs of progress in rescue of beached grey whales near Delta Signs of progress in rescue of beached grey whales near Delta – May 10, 2019 “[The whales] are likely quite agitated right now, so any sudden movement could make the area very unsafe,” he said. A containment area was set up to keep people out. Story continues below advertisement One witness said they were able to wade out far enough to see the animals up close. WATCH: Sophie Lui reports on the rescue operations before the tide started to come in 0:40 Rescue underway for two beached grey whales near Delta Rescue underway for two beached grey whales near Delta – May 10, 2019 “It looked like one of them was breathing every 10 minutes or so I think,” Rob Amar said. “The tide came up to my waist when I was out there, so hopefully it all works out.” DFO marine mammal rescue crews used re-flotation devices to try and move the whales further out from the shallows. Positive signs for two whales beached here at Centennial Beach @GlobalBC pic.twitter.com/3KU1SHQDVJ — Catherine Urquhart (@CUrquhartGlobal) May 11, 2019 WATCH: Grey whales spotted in Metro Vancouver 0:55 Grey whales spotted in Metro Vancouver Grey whales spotted in Metro Vancouver – May 10, 2019 By 6:30 p.m., the tide had come in enough that the whales had started moving again, but it wasn’t yet clear whether they were able to swim out to deeper waters. Story continues below advertisement Closer to 8 p.m., the slightly dazed whales were making their way back into the ocean fully freed. Several grey whales have been spotted foraging in shallow waters in the Boundary Bay area recently, and DFO is urging people to keep their distance on the water as well. Boaters, kayakers and paddle boarders! If you’re in the waters near #WhiteRock beach and see a grey whale 🐋, lucky you! Make it lucky for the whale too – keep your distance and don’t chase or surround the animal. Our #FisheryOfficers are patrolling. https://t.co/cKCsTVurQl pic.twitter.com/omz6YQmt0g — DFO Pacific (@DFO_Pacific) May 9, 2019 On Thursday, grey whales were spotted near White Rock and in the Indian Arm between Belcarra and Barnet Marine Park. —With files from Robyn Crawford and Catherine Urquhart<doc-sep>3 1 of 3 NOAA Fisheries/West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Everett Police Department Show More Show Less 3 of 3 EVERETT, Wash. -- Two dead grey whales were found washed ashore in the last two days, bringing the total to 13 this year alone in Washington state, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A dead grey whale washed ashore at Harborview Park in Everett Sunday, according to the Everett Police Department.<doc-sep>People look at a beached dead gray whale at Ocean Beach on May 6 in San Francisco, California. The Marine Mammal Center will perform a necropsy of the whale on Tuesday to determine the cause of death. (CNN) — A dead gray whale washed ashore on a San Francisco beach Monday morning – the ninth such death in the Bay Area this year, scientists at the Marine Mammal Center said. “The death of nine gray whales in the San Francisco Bay Area this year is a cause for serious concern and reinforces the need to continue to perform and share the results of these type of investigations with key decision-makers,” Dr. Padraig Duignan, Chief Research Pathologist at the center, said. A necropsy will be performed on the whale Tuesday, the Marine Mammal Center said. 1/2: The Marine Mammal Center confirms a dead gray whale washed ashore early this morning at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. Our scientists & partners plan to perform a necropsy, or animal autopsy, tomorrow in an attempt to determine the cause of death. 📸 Credit Sarah Maria Curran pic.twitter.com/6sDhSnhz8H — The Marine Mammal Center (@TMMC) May 6, 2019 Blunt force trauma from ships, malnutrition and entanglements are the most common causes of death in whales, the center said. Necropsies have confirmed the cause of seven of the previous eight whale deaths this year. Three whales died from ship strikes and four from malnutrition. The cause of death of the eighth whale has not been determined. “It is critical for scientists to conduct in-depth necropsies to better understand why animals are dying,” the center said in a news release. “Whales and other marine mammals face numerous human-caused threats and solutions must be found to protect healthy and vulnerable species alike,” the center said. Reports of whales in ‘poor body condition’ Today, there are about 26,000 gray whales, found only in the Pacific Ocean, according to the center. There are more gray whales around the San Francisco area than usual this time of year, as they migrate north. The center says biologists have observed gray whales “in poor body condition” this year, possibly “due to anomalous oceanic conditions” which have contributed to “shifting food sources.” The 90,000-pound creatures were once on the brink of extinction. In the late 1800s and again in the early 1900s, the gray whale population dropped to less than 2,000 after they had been hunted by humans. In 1946, an international agreement to stop hunting them helped put their numbers back on track and in 1994 they were taken off the Endangered Species List. CNN’s Sarah Moon contributed to this report.<doc-sep>
For several anxious hours Friday, marine biologists with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans looked on as a grey whale and her calf struggled to free themselves from a sandbar in the shallow waters of Boundary Bay. Local resident Stefan Geffke notified the DFO after spotting the stranded mammals around 2:30 in the afternoon. “I could hear the sound of the whales, like the blowholes,” he said. “I could kind of see them and I was the only one out there so I walked out, probably, to the marker, which is over a kilometre out, and from there I could see they were struggling.” Over the next few hours, DFO staff monitored the whales from a boat, as dozens of spectators descended on the beach to get a look for themselves. Paul Cotrell, a DFO marine mammal coordinator, said biologists decided not to attempt to assist the mother and calf with flotation devices because working with the two stranded animals so close together could have been dangerous for rescuers. In the early evening, the incoming tide floated the two massive mammals, and they were able to move again. Initially disoriented, the whales eventually swam out towards deeper water with a little guidance from a DFO boat. "They were acting like normal grey whales again," Cotrell told CTV News. Stranded grey whales not uncommon Martin Haulena, the head veterinarian with the Vancouver Aquarium’s Marine Mammal Rescue Team, was on standby to lend a hand, but his services were not needed Friday. He said grey whales are bottom feeders and this pair likely swam into Boundary Bay to forage for food in the muddy shallows when they got in trouble. "This is incredibly long, flat beach,” said Haulena. “But that geography is very bad for whales. It can make them get caught very easily.” Although the animals managed to swim away without any assistance, their time on the beach could still have lasting health impacts. "When they come on land, they start to bear weight when they were never supposed to bear weight,” said Haulena. “That mass compresses the lungs, they can't breathe correctly. It compresses circulation. Kidneys start to die, muscles start to die. Those organs start releasing toxins." DFO biologists in a boat followed the whales for about three hours after they left the bay and say they eventually began to exhibit normal behaviour again. Cotrell said the DFO will continue to try to track the whales for the foreseeable future to monitor them for any long-term health impacts. He said the DFO usually responds to a handful of similiar rescues every year in B.C. waters. With files from CTV Vancouver's Angela Jung