Residents of Sisal did what most beachgoers would do when a small whale washed up on their shore: they tried to push it back out to sea. When it kept swimming back to the sand, they called for help.
The animal, an adult male melon-headed whale, is now being treated by marine biologists from the Autonomous University of Yucatán, or UADY. Its condition is delicate, and its prognosis is guarded.
The live stranding happened Thursday on the coast of Sisal, the fishing port and Pueblo Mágico on Yucatán’s western Gulf coast. After several failed attempts by locals to release the animal far from shore, someone reported it to the university’s Marine Mammal Research and Conservation Program of Yucatán, known by its Spanish initials, PICMMY.
The team gave instructions by phone: stop trying to release it, take it out of the water, and keep it covered and wet until specialists arrived.
Too weak to swim
When the PICMMY team examined the whale, they found it emaciated and lacking the energy to stay afloat or swim. It was not a candidate for immediate release.
The whale was moved in an official vehicle of the state’s Sustainable Development Secretariat, known as SDS, to the agency’s field station for treatment and rehabilitation. The federal environmental protection agency, Profepa, authorized the transfer. PICMMY holds permits from Mexico’s environment ministry, Semarnat, to handle protected marine mammals.
The animal survived its first night and remains under 24-hour care.
Despite the name, melon-headed whales belong to the oceanic dolphin family. They normally live in deep tropical and subtropical waters, and PICMMY says the species is a common resident of the open Gulf of Mexico. This is not the first time one has stranded alive on the Yucatán coast.
Survival after a stranding is rare for this species. A 2016 review by U.S. federal scientists of 103 melon-headed whale stranding records found that none of the animals had been judged healthy enough to release. Only two survived for an extended period in human care, including one in Texas that lived seven months.
The Sisal case comes during a run of recent dolphin strandings along Yucatán’s northern coast, most of them animals found dead.
Why pushing it back can backfire
PICMMY says a marine mammal that strands alive should not be returned to the water until trained scientists have checked it. Animals that come ashore are often sick, injured or exhausted. Whatever energy they have left can run out as they try to swim, and they can drown.
There is a health risk for people, too. Because whales and dolphins are mammals, handling them without proper hygiene and protection can pass infections in both directions.
The team asks anyone who finds a dolphin, manatee or whale on the Yucatán coast to alert local authorities right away so specialists can respond in time.
PICMMY is made up of scientists with national and international experience, along with UADY marine biology students and thesis researchers. It works with municipal, state and federal agencies through a regional network that responds to marine mammal strandings on Yucatán’s coast.
Fast Facts
- Species: Melon-headed whale (Peponocephala electra)
- Family: Oceanic dolphins, related to pilot whales and orcas
- Size: Up to about 2.7 meters (9 feet) and 209 kg (460 pounds)
- Habitat: Deep tropical and subtropical waters worldwide
- Conservation status: Least concern, according to the IUCN
- Found a stranded marine mammal? Don’t push it back to sea
- Instead: Call local authorities and wait for trained responders
With reporting from La Jornada Maya, with species data from NOAA Fisheries