Project Jonah has been involved in marine mammal conservation in New Zealand for more than thirty years. For more than 20 of those years Sheryl Gibney has been an active whale rescue volunteer, or Marine Mammal Medic.
Sheryl now serves as the Project’s Chief Stranding Technical Advisor. She has been named an Honorary Marine Mammal Protection Officer and Honorary Ranger with the New Zealand Department of Conservation, the government agency which oversees marine mammal conservation. I spent a day with this memorable woman in the fall of 2010 sharing her memories of some of her favorite Project Jonah experiences.
Whale and Dolphin Strandings are Common in New Zealand
There are only a few places in the world where whales and dolphins regularly strand in large numbers. Australia, Cape Cod in the United States and the north end of New Zealand’s South Island share this dubious honor.
The species that mass strands most commonly in New Zealand is the long–finned pilot whale (Globicephala melas). New Zealand also sees its share of single stranded whales and dolphins. Common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) and pygmy sperm whales (Kogia breviceps) are most often seen stranded alone.
Sheryl Gibney’s Marine Mammal Rescue Experiences
Sheryl talked about her first experience with Project Jonah. 400 long–finned pilot whales stranded at Farewell Spit on New Zealand’s South Island just across from Wellington during a storm. Despite the difficult conditions, 377 of those pilot whales were released. She attributed the success of this whale rescue to the animals only being on the beach a very short time, and confessed it had a lot to do with her getting so involved in marine mammal conservation work with Project Jonah.
Another favorite story of Sheryl’s concerns the time she watched as a dolphin led a pygmy sperm whale they had just rescued out of a bay. This area is particularly difficult to navigate and she was concerned about the whale restranding, until the local dolphin arrived and took over.
Lessons Learned From New Zealand Whale and Dolphin Strandings
Project Jonah has learned a great deal about handling a variety of whale and dolphin mass stranding situations in their 30 years. Sheryl talked about the need to note the key whale, usually the matriarch and often one of the animals furthest from the water, during a mass stranding. How this whale responds often affects the success of the rescue.
New Zealand’s Project Noah pioneered the use of pontoons to help refloat and relocate stranded whales and dolphins. Sheryl calls them a tool in the kit, having great value in some circumstances. The pontoons are often used when a single animal strands up a creek. Once the animal is on the pontoons it can be floated into open water. In mass strandings pontoons may be used to hold some of the key animals near the beach while they are prepared for release.
The Marine Mammal Medics of Project Jonah have also found that gently rocking stranded whales and dolphins once they are refloated helps to loosen muscles which have become stiff after being on land, and to reorient the animals to being in back in the water. Sheryl has observed groups of pilot whales spending time rolling and stretching after being released. In the early days she often worried that they would restrand but she has found that, if the whales take time to stretch then regroup, often touching and rubbing each other in the process, they often leave shortly after that. She likens this to a group of people who have just been through a tough situation, gathering in smaller numbers to check on each other, then getting the whole group back together to move on.
At the end of the day Sheryl joined us at an IFAW Marine Mammal Rescue and Research (MMRR) program mass stranding meeting. Despite her more than twenty years of marine mammal rescue experience she listened carefully to the MMRR volunteers’ experiences and suggestions for improving rescue techniques. She offered a few ideas from her experiences and later told me how impressed she was with the knowledge and ingenuity of the IFAW MMRR team. Strong words of praise from The Whale Lady of New Zealand.
Dawn M. Smith - A vet nurse, Dawn has worked in wildlife rehabilitation and conservation around the world in addition to her veterinary hospital ...
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