Stranded Whale
On Thursday night a whale, thought to be a fin or pygmy sperm whale, became stranded on one of the shallow reefs off Gaya Island, facing towards Kota Kinabalu. By the morning, Sabah Parks staff, Marine Police and Beach Bums staff were trying to control the circus of people that had come to see the whale - people were standing on it, slapping it around etc etc, stressing the animal out beyond belief. Simon Enderby and I were given permission by Sabah Parks to get in the water to do some shooting - video and stills - of the whale and the efforts to keep it cool. The plan was to use a rope placed around its tail to pull it off the reef into deeper water at high hide.
Edit 17/12/08 - The whale was successfully pulled off last night at about 9pm - hopefully it will survive although it was not in good shape after being scraped for so long on the corals.
Edit2 17/12/08 - We heard that the whale was found dead very close to where it was moved off the reef. I suspect it never had a chance with all the injuries it sustained being stranded and stressed for so long.