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UPDATE: Deputy shoots protected whale on Santa Rosa Beach
October 12, 2006
Gabriel Tynes
gtynes@link.freedom.com
Various reports are indicating that a Walton County Sheriff?s Office deputy shot an ailing, protected whale species on Santa Rosa Beach Wednesday evening without the approval of state or federal wildlife officials. Lt. Bryan Maule, public information officer for the WCSO, said the deputy shot the eight-foot pygmy sperm whale after observing it ?suffering from great pain.?
Deputies and workers from the Tourist Development Council responded to the call around 6:15 p.m., and found beachgoers attempting to resuscitate the whale in red-flag surf. According to witnesses, more than 30 people were at the scene.
Internal fluids were spilling from the whale and deputies asked people to leave the area to eliminate the risks of shark attacks. One source reported that while the whale was in distress, it still appeared strong - swimming as far as 100 feet offshore four times before turning back toward the beach.
Lt. Maule said the deputies assisted in trying to get the whale swimming once more before pulling it onshore and waiting for wildlife officials to respond.
?I was told that the deputies involved were expecting a 60-90 minute response time from wildlife agencies,? Maule said. ?This entire time, the whale was flailing around and appeared to be in pain.?
Maule said the deputies made an on-scene decision to euthanize the whale after being advised by a veterinarian over the phone that it was going euthanized anyway. Once the deputies cleared the water and the beach, one or more gunshots were heard.
The whale was transported to the TDC equipment yard on Satinwood Lane where it was rinsed before officials from the National Marine Fisheries Service and Gulf World Marine Park picked it up at 8:15 p.m. Sheriff?s deputies present when wildlife officials finally arrived made no mention of having euthanized the animal themselves.
Instead, the wildlife team speculated that the wounds could have been caused by cookie cutter sharks. The team was able to positively identify the whale as an adult, female, pygmy sperm whale and said it appeared as if it had recently given birth.
When she arrived on the scene, the NMFS Marine Mammal Stranding Area Representative Sebrina Brown said, ?cookie cutter shark bites can look like gunshot wounds, but we can?t rule out human involvement.?
Brown said a necropsy on Thursday would determine the cause of death and whether the
whale had any diseases.
Keen Polakoff, a Santa Rosa Beach resident who witnessed the incident with his wife Kimberly, said that although the whale was acting unusual, he believed it was in no immediate danger of dying. Other residents who attempted to save the whale are waiting results of the necropsy to determine whether to file official complaints against the Sheriff?s Office.
?Whether or not that whale would have been able to sustain itself in the water is unclear,? Lt. Maule said. He also indicated that he had not seen the official report on the incident.
?But as far as I?m concerned we followed procedure.?
According to the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, the pygmy sperm is among the smallest of all whales and is not much larger than most dolphins. Although they have world-wide distribution, they are rarely sighted at sea and most scientific information about the species is that gathered from stranded specimens.
See more information in Saturday's Walton Sun
