LIHUE — Five pilot whales died after several beached themselves Friday morning at Kalapaki Bay. A strong volunteer response to push them back to deep water may have saved others. Late Friday, more whales beached themselves, and it was feared
LIHUE — Five pilot whales died after several beached themselves Friday morning at Kalapaki Bay. A strong volunteer response to push them back to deep water may have saved others.
Late Friday, more whales beached themselves, and it was feared more could be stranded today.
“There is a chance they could restrand. Really, only time will tell,” said David Scofield, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration incident commander. “We’ll know in the next couple days.”
It is hoped they will meet with more of their pod at sea.
It is unknown why they beached.
“It’s kind of a mystery right now as to why these whales stranded,” he said.
He said at least seven pilot whales beached at Kalapaki. Five were herded away from shore, two died that morning and three washed ashore in the afternoon and evening. It is believed there were more pilot whales in the area, as they travel in large pods.
Scofield said a necropsy will be performed on the dead whales to try and determine the cause of death.
“There are lots of natural- and human-caused reasons for stranding,” he said.
Possible causes could be infections to parasites to plastics to blunt force trauma from being hit by a ship. Pilot whales are a close family and will follow one sick one to shore.
Several people put the blame on what they believe are military underwater activities in the area.
Scofield said the whales didn’t show any signs of entanglement or trauma, and appeared to be in good physical health. The adults were about 18-feet long and probably weighed about 4,000 to 5,000 pounds.
Mass strandings, two or more whales, like this are rare on Kauai. The last one was in 2004 in Hanalei Bay.
Pilot whales, because of their social nature and tight ohana groupings, mass strand more than any other species, Scofield said. On the East Coast and in New Zealand hundreds of them have been known to become stranded on beaches at one time.
Scofield said normally, NOAA would not recommend pushing stranded whales off the beach. But because they were pilot whales, it was OK to try.
Many agencies and people responded.
NOAA Fisheries, the U.S. Coast Guard, Kauai fire and police departments and state Department of Land and Natural Resources Divisions of Aquatic Resources and Conservation and Resources Enforcement joined concerned community members and Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners arriving at Kalapaki Beach on the north side of Nawiliwili Harbor.
Several men, under direction of NOAA’s Jamie Thomton, pushed whales out.
When the whales continued to try and return, men took to paddleboards and canoes to usher them way. Some swam into the deep next to the whales to keep them from shore. Boats were called in as well.
Kauai County provided heavy machinery to lift the deceased stranded whales off the beach and onto truck trailers provided by DOCARE. The whales were taken to an undisclosed location where autopsies were expected to continue into the night.
“Disease and old age are common causes of death for whales, but it’s too soon to know,” Scofield said. “Post-mortem exams occasionally reveal a likely cause, but more often they are inconclusive, and we must then wait for lab test results. Working with the UH Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, our stranding response partner, we will ensure the post-mortem exam and lab tests are thorough and comprehensive.”
Coast Guard Station Kauai received initial notification of the stranding from an off-duty Coast Guard member who was surfing. Station personnel immediately called the local NOAA representative on Kauai for direction and response.
Coast Guard personnel were directed to monitor the whales and prevent anyone from touching them prior to the arrival of the NOAA staff. Once on scene, NOAA personnel evaluated the animals and directed Coast Guard and Kauai Fire Department personnel on the proper way to reintroduce the animals to the ocean. Once in the water KFD personnel and volunteers aboard outrigger canoes escorted the whales out of the harbor.
“We appreciate the public’s concern for these animals and the strong partnership we have with NOAA and other agencies to address strandings,” said Senior Chief Petty Officer Michael Winiarski, officer-in-charge of Coast Guard Station Kauai.
A Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Air Station Barbers Point is conducting fly-overs of Kalapaki Bay to further assess the situation, and look for any other stranded marine mammals. NOAA, DLNR and county representatives will continue monitoring the beach and the harbor through at least today in the event other whales become stranded on the beach.
Terry Lilley, marine biologist based in Hanalei, said the beaching of the pilot whales wasn’t a surprise to him. He said he’s been scuba diving near Kalapaki for the last month and has videos of deep water giant knife jaw fish coming into shore. He said they normally live in the deep water where pilot whales feed.
He believes one possible cause forcing them from the deep are underwater drones he said the Navy is using along the coastline as part of its electronic efforts to detect the quiet class of enemy submarines.
“Those things are going to affect the whales,” he said.
“It would not surprise me at all that the drone and submarine activity are chasing the deep water creatures out of their homes,” he said.
Capt. Vincent Johnson, commander of the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, said Friday the Navy didn’t have any sonar or bomb testing going on.
“There was nothing in the Hawaiian testing training area yesterday or today,” he said. “We only had one event on our range yesterday, where they drop buoys, and it’s a passive tracking exercise. They’re pretending there’s a submarine there and they’re tracking it, but there’s no submarine. The buoys, they’re like 20 pounds and it’s a microphone that listens for a submarine. There was no active sonar and there’s no ordinance — so no bombs.”
“I looked into our range and what was going on, and from what I’m seeing there were no other events in the rest of the areas. All the areas that were booked were air events.”
“It’s a pretty quiet week over here, actually, because it’s the Navy’s birthday today. The Navy ball is tonight, so everyone’s getting ready for that.”
Molly Lutcavage, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, studies marine vertebra and was at Kalapaki Beach Friday.
She said pilot whales are social and when one of the family members has a problem or strands, the rest of the group will often follow.
She said it will be difficult to learn the cause of death.
“Most of the time, reasons are undetermined for mass strandings,” she said. “The issue is the social nature of these mammals.”
When asked if military activities could be the source, Lutcavage said it was possible, though not likely, it caused the whales to beach Friday.
“That’s been examined for decades,” he said. “Very few cases that have shown cause and effect of sonar have been documented.”
She said those conducting the necropsy on the whales should look for damage to the inner ear, which could be the result of sonar.
“If you have that, then that’s your smoking gun that they’ve had acoustic trauma,” she said. “I’m sure the pathology crew will be looking for that.”
She said mass strandings happen on the East Coast more often, and can include hundreds of pilot whales.
“Groups tend to be smaller here in the Hawaiian Islands,” she said.
Lutcavage noted the strong emotional reaction of some locals to the plight of the whales Friday.
“That’s the connection of the islanders to the animals,” she said. “It gives me the chills.”
