'Miracle' whale defies Danish doom-mongers

This has a happy ending to it. :)
---------------------------------------------


http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/images/2...age6587761.jpghttp://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/images/2...age6587762.jpg


http://www.vancouversun.com/technolo...107/story.html

A young whale stranded for three days on the edge of a Danish fjord suddenly began swimming again Friday, astounding rescuers and experts who had predicted it was on the edge of death.

"It's fantastic, a miracle," witness Lisbeth Blumenkranz told AFP after the fin whale started moving. "I saw it at around 6:20 pm (1720 GMT) breathing, moving and swimming. Everyone thought it was dying, but it's alive."

Thousands of people had flocked to see the distressed whale at the Vejle fjord in western Denmark as rescuers made repeated attempts since Wednesday morning to help it return to the water at high tide.

Police spokesman Joergen Jacobsen confirmed that the giant mammal - believed to be three or four years old and weighing 20 to 30 tonnes - had regained its strength and started moving again.

Fin whales are the second largest living animal after the blue whale, according to the environmental charity WWF. They are listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Helped by the tide, the 15-metre (yard) long whale began swimming, but "towards the back of the fjord and not towards the high sea," he said.

Fireman tried unsuccessfully to turn the whale back towards the open sea, and late in the evening it was located near the port of Vejle in 1.1 metres of water at low tide.

"The only chance it has left is with the currents, if it seeks to get out of the fjord and if it still capable of doing that," said Peter Buelow of the Danish Forest and Nature agency.

Just hours earlier, rescuers had said they had decided to allow the whale to "die naturally and in peace" and firefighters were spraying it with water to protect it from the sun in what were assumed to be its last moments.

The whale became stranded at low tide on Wednesday on a bank several metres long, and became exhausted after struggling to free itself.

Experts who saw the whale earlier Friday said it was ill and that there was "almost no chance" of it surviving, said Henrik Lykke Soerensen, operations coordinator at the Danish Forest and Nature agency, part of the environment ministry.

"We do not have experience in putting down such large sea mammals and even if one tried it could take hours without any guarantee of success according to the experts," added Soerensen.

Whale expert Tyge Jensen, in agreement with other biologists, said he believed that the whale was "ill and out of instinct left the school (of whales) in order to die alone."

The Nordic spokesman for the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) contrasted Danish people's response to the whale's plight to Denmark's policy on whaling.

"Everyone wants to save the whale of the Vejle fjord but no one can. Everyone can save the thousands of whales brutally killed each year but no one wants to," said Morten Rasmussen.

Denmark was set to back whaling nations at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission being held in Morocco from Monday, he added.

Fin whales, also known as rorquals, are streamlined in appearance with a distinct ridge along the back behind the dorsal fin, according to the WWF.

Their typical life span is around 85 to 90 years and the total population in the North Atlantic probably exceeds 46,000, it added.

The phenomenon of whale strandings and the causes remain the subject of scientific debate.

AFP