Trinidad experiences three beachings within a week

The island of Trinidad in the Caribbean Sea had to deal with several strandings of melon-headed whales last week. The first incident occurred on Monday with four individuals found on the beach of Moruga. While three of them were already dead upon discovery, the fourth could be refloated successfully.

Only two days later, another melon-headed whale was discovered at Maracas Bay early in the morning. Several rescue groups, fishermen and volunteers collaborated to help the animal back into the ocean. The attempt was unsuccessful though, and after an examination by the veterinarian, euthanisation was the only sensible choice. They said “it would have drowned if it was pushed back into the water”.

Post-mortem examination revealed heavy parasitic meningitis which affected the animal’s cerebellum and thus its ability to stay balanced in the water. Further parasitic cysts were discovered in the reproductive organs and the stomach wall. Since the dead whales from Monday’s incident were also thought to have been killed by a disease, the public was urged to avoid handling marine mammals washed ashore as they could pose “a significant public health risk”.

The fifth melon-headed whale stranded in Trinidad last week had to be euthanized due to heavy parasitic load.

However, this advice was quickly discarded by Granville residents when they came across another beached whaled on Sunday morning. Fishermen loaded the animal onto a tarpaulin and carried it out into deeper water. First, attempts ended with the animal washing back onto the shore. Only when the animal was loaded onto a boat and driven out much further by the last time, it managed to swim away - the refloating was thus deemed successful.

Though the rescuers had no regret over the rescue, residents are still advised to approach stranded animals with caution since especially singly stranded animals are “typically ill and maybe harbouring in­fec­tious or­gan­isms that may have the po­ten­tial to be detri­men­tal to hu­mans and oth­er an­i­mals.”

The stranding report of the fifth whale can be found here: https://www.guardian.co.tt/news/fifth-melonheaded-whale-strandedat-beach-6.2.1055325.211f4849a2, the sixth whale is covered here: https://www.guardian.co.tt/news/granville-residents-in-rescue-mission-as-6.2.1057384.da9de773d9