Dozens of whales found dead on Anegada
More than 40 whales have been found dead along the shore of the eastern end of Anegada.
The species of those animals are said to be pilot whales which, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica, are characterised by a round bulging forehead, a short beaklike snout, and slender pointed flippers.
The circumstances of their death are not yet clear to BVI News but Representative of the Ninth District where Anegada is located, Vincent Wheatley, said marine experts based overseas have been deployed to the BVI for a site visit.
“Some are here already and some are flying in from Puerto Rico, I think on Monday, to do an autopsy on the whales to determine the cause of death. We don’t really know what has caused it whether it’s sickness or disorientation. But once we get a better understanding and we take the advice from the experts on whether to bury them on land or take them back to sea; what the experts advise is what I’m prepared to follow,” Wheatley told BVI News Saturday afternoon.
He further told or news centre the whales were found beached on the island on Friday, July 1 but he suspects they were there days before they were actually discovered.
Caution: watch out for sharks!
The Ninth District Representative, who previously served as Minister of Natural Resources, also told BVI News there are “a significant number of other whales out beyond the reef”.
“From what I heard, the full party is about 150 of them but so far only 46 actually beached and died,” said Wheatley who warned persons to be careful visiting the area.
“I caution persons particularly divers to be very careful diving in those areas because the bodies will attract sharks,” he said while noting that sharks have already been spotted in the area and might remain there for weeks to come.
Whale beaching seen on Anegada before
Whale beaching is not a new phenomenon and Anegada fisherman, Rondel Smith, Snr told BVI News he has personally witnessed it before.
In fact, he said he’s seen dead beached whales “right around the same area” in the past.
“This would be the second time I have seen it. That was close to 20 years ago, maybe more,” said Smith, who noted that some of the whales were still alive when he visited the area this morning, July 2.
BVI News will provide more on this developing story as the information becomes available.
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By the way, the correct description of these animals death investigation is called a necropsy as oppose to an autopsy. Autopsies are for humans death investigations.
It would be interesting to find out what the necropsy finds as the cause of death.
The likely suspects.. Disgusting Humans )-:
shame?
Normal accuracy for pilot whales.
The plagues upon this BVI have begun.
…
The man did not say he was a marine biologist. Everybody understand what he means.
No one is attacking him. And who is everybody? Speak for yourself. It does not matter what he believes he is.
The important point for all of us to know is the correct term to be used here.
You should learn from that too instead of name calling which describes u best. Now learn something and run along.
The sea was angry that day, like an old man in a deli sending back soup.
I tell ya he was ten stories high if he was a foot………..and I said whoooaaaaa big fella!
Ayo please pay that man from Senegal his money
???
Just like the unity government
please mr minister, CLOSE THE BEACHES!!!!!!!!!
HA E TO HAVE CAUSED IT , WHETHER NATURAL OR WHATEVER , PERHAPS CHASED BY A SCHOOL OF SHARKS , THING HAPPENING UNDER THE WATER UNKNOWN TO US , BUT ITS VERY SAD ?
It was probably military SONAR.
i believe thats what they call the black fish in st vincent, might be wrong.
Get that Survey Ship out of the BVI and see if this happens again. They might have been disoriented.
You on every site spewing filth!!
GOD’S WORD IS NOT A JOKE!!!!!
Deuteronomy 18:10-12
Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you.
Poor leadership?
Sorry, I will get my coat.
This happens all across the world. When one gets sick the others tend to follow and stay together. I guess its their natural instinct
These situations are never expected . However , it seems like more could have been done to prevent the groundings as they were happening. Perhaps a percentage could have been saved. Live and learn.
I completely agree.
From what I can tell happened, this event started on Thursday morning according to the initial eye witness.
Nobody outside of Anegada was made aware until Friday evening.
On Saturday morning a group from Beyond the Reef headed to Anegada and throughout the course of the day we’re able to save two whale under the guide of a specialist from IFAW. True Heroes in my opinion. Just imagine if they were alerted earlier. Imagine if more people were willing to help. I got in touch with multiple people living on Anegada on Saturday morning, hoping I could help in some way and was told on multiple occasions ‘everything is dead, nothing more can be done’. That was obviously not true as it was an ongoing event at that time.
The part of all of it I found most disgusting, is as these rescue efforts were under way, Shannon Gore, the supposed specialist of the BVI, was informing people to not attempt to help the animals in any fashion stating that ‘putting them back in the water would be like putting a car crash victim back into the car’. As if leaving them on the beach to die a slow agonizing death from dehydration is a better solution. All so she can collect sample. To me that just shows the difference between a conservationist and a scientist.
Look at the many articles from all around the world about these incidents. People go to great lengths to try to rescue these animals, with high rates of success in some cases. But the BVI chose to do NOTHING!
Very interesting statement. Thank you for your efforts.
The thing is. These marine mammals strand for a reason. The biologists need to know if it’s because of a toxic spill or another reason. Pushing them back out only works if they are healthy to begin (like in cases of disorientation, they all follow the leader and mass strand) with otherwise, they can re-strand themselves over and over again. These pods are their family and sometimes they will not leave other members of their family and will restrand themselves causing even more damage.
I don’t understand the delay in notifying the residents tho. These mammals can be cared for by residents of the island until a Biologist can get there. Poor things probably getting severe sunburn as well as whatever caused them to strand.
Poor animals! Thank you for caring.
So the advice you are so disgusted about receiving from a Marine Biologist has spurred you on to discredit and attack her? I assume you have no idea why the advice was given, so I will explain it to you. The advice was/is completely correct. The Pilot Whales had received multiple injuries after going over the horse shoe reef and stranding. Most were exhausted to the point of hardly being able to move. They and their dead pod members were/still are attracting sharks. The whales that were led back out to open water have a minimal survival chance due to injuries sustained, prolonged period of lack of movement and lack of feeding. They would also have been extremely easy targets for the sharks waiting in deeper water. Therefore the advice was not only given in the whales best interests, but also in the publics. If you feel so passionate about wildlife, perhaps you should take action and join an NGO helping wildlife? Or better still, study for a degree, Masters and then PhD before questioning an experts reasons for giving advice!
There are too much of pollution and contamination in the sea, on land and in the air.
Don’t you see how so much of people are dying also.
People kill people every day unnecessarily to eat and to be entertained. But now all of a sudden we are sad.
If you really care about animals, stop eating them.
Too many people pee in the ocean there.
Many times this happen when they are chase by killer whales an end up on the beach they are confuse.
They might have been chase by killerwhalse an are confuse that why they end up on the beach
CERN
Any facts available as exact number of dead whales and result of investigations regarding the root causes conducted by officials in charge of ?