greenlink%gn@cdp.uucp (10/08/89)
Date: October 3, 1989
Via GreenLink:
==============
COVEHEAD, Newfoundland (AP) -- Rescue crews freed six sperm
whales that beached on Prince Edward Island's north-shore
national park, but one of the huge sea mammals died.
As a crowd of hundreds watched Sunday, federal fisheries
officers sent divers to tie slings, one at a time, around the
tails of the creatures, which ranged in length from about 40 to
65 feet.
A jet-ski took the line to a waiting Parks Canada boat, which
then towed each whale out about 300 feet then tried to keep it
from returning to the beach by circling it.
The shoreside crowd let out a rousing cheer as the first
surviving whale blew a high spout of water upon reaching the open
ocean.
Fisheries officers said they believed the dead whale drowned.
It was not known what caused the whales to become trapped between
two sandbars, but a fisheries spokesman said one possibility was
that the sound of a jackhammer working on a nearby bridge might
have attracted them.
Whales have been known to beach themselves trying to answer the
distress calls from other beached whales.
The beaching was reported early Sunday.
Covehead is near the eastern end of the national park between
Brackley and Dalvay beaches.
---
Patt Haring | United Nations | Did u read
patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information | misc.headlines.unitex
patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange | today?
-=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-