Save a whale, save your world
Lisa Niven (top) and friends becoming trained Marine Mammal Medics. Photo: Matt Duncan.
Project Jonah New Zealand promotes the welfare and protection of marine mammals and helps out when they get into trouble in our waters.
Niven was keen to do the training and be added to the growing national database of qualified stranding volunteers who help whales and dolphins get back out to sea when they beach in their hundreds each year.
“Whales do strand naturally, but human activity has had an impact both on their numbers and on their behaviour, so it seems only fair to help them out,” explains Niven, who completed the course at Scorching Bay last November, “In mass stranding situations most whales are healthy and have perhaps just followed their sick mate out of solidarity.”
She’s heard stories from strandings of people doing “daft stuff” such as playing flutes to the whales, draping them with flower garlands, and trying to climb onto them for a joy ride a-la-Whale Rider.
Whale strandings don’t happen in Wellington because of the deep harbour. Golden Bay at the top of the South Island, however, is a hot spot for strandings, as whales follow the curve of Farewell Spit and end up on the shallow beaches in summer.
“I’m usually there around peak stranding time so I thought it would be cool to provide some proper help,” Niven says.
She was taught both theoretical whale-saving skills on the Project Jonah course, before hopping into a wetsuit. In the sea at Scorching Bay, she practised saving two inflatable pilot whales in a simulated stranding. Pilot whales are about four to six metres long and are the most common species of whale seen in New Zealand waters.
“A factual session covered the life cycle and social behaviour of whales, including where, when and why they strand, and a five stage rescue response,” she says, “We watched videos of what not to do – including one of a woman who was knocked out by standing too close to the whale’s very powerful tail.”
The inflatable whales looked very realistic and were filled with water, weighing between half a tonne and a tonne, Niven says.
“We were taught first aid and two different re-floating techniques as well as how to direct a group of people with no whale-rescue experience. We had quite a crowd of onlookers including a guy in a kayak; I’m pretty sure he thought they were real whales.”
Volunteers receive a text message if there’s a whale stranding so they can get involved straight away, but Niven won’t be back saving whales in New Zealand waters for a while.
She’s about to embark on an overseas adventure and plans to further her studies overseas, possibilities including humanitarian and environmental law.
Ideally, she’d also like to plant trees to offset her carbon footprint from air travel.
“In China since 1981, it has been the duty of every citizen over age 11 to plant three trees per year. I like the idea that they take responsibility for their environment like that, and in quite a personal way, that is, not just contributing the money to plant the trees,” says Niven.
“Doing something like that allows you to engage more with the natural environment. It makes it more of an experience and less of a ‘duty’”.
Further information on the course at www.projectjonah.org.nz
Project Jonah’s Marine Mammal Medic course, Wellington, November 12.
- Jennifer Niven
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