Beached whale at Micro Beach put down

A young whale found beached on the shore of Micro Beach in Garapan was put down at past 3pm yesterday, a few hours after being found.

Fisheries biologist Mike Tenorio of the Division of Fish and Wildlife said the decision to euthanize the whale, which measured approximately 13 1/2 feet long and weighed about 600 to 650 lbs, was based on the progression of the whale since 8am yesterday when they received a call about the stranded marine mammal.

“What happened was that we came out with our vessels and met up with some of our federal counterparts in trying to discuss how to deal with the situation,” he said.

Tenorio said they were in communication with their federal counterparts in Hawaii to discuss what needed to be done with the whale.

Based on their monitoring, Tenorio said it appeared that the whale was not going to get any better.

“Basically, if you see that it gets to a point that it’s not coming back, then you call somebody to euthanize it. …The idea is to put it to sleep so it doesn’t suffer anymore,” he said.

DFW called in private veterinarian Dr. Ed Tudor, who said in an interview that he administered “a lot” of solution in order to put the whale to sleep.

According to Tenorio, whales tend to beach themselves “to try to continue breathing and not stay afloat out there.”

Tenorio noted that there were no deep cuts found on the stranded whale’s body.

“Something happened to this whale,” he told Saipan Tribune. “We don’t necessarily know what specifically it is, but something happened to it that caused it to come in and beach itself.”

Tenorio said two or three members of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network from Hawaii are expected to arrive today to do a necropsy—an autopsy performed on an animal.

After the whale was put down, it was towed to Smiling Cove Marina where it was put on a trailer and brought to a holding facility “where it will be kept cold, probably frozen,” added Tenorio.

Tenorio disclosed that another whale—a dead one—was found Monday on the back reef area outside Oleai Beach Bar & Grill.

“We decided to take the whale since it’s already dead and it needed to be taken out of the area for health purposes,” he said.

Tenorio said that members of the stranding network only want the head sample of the dead whale; they had to discard the carcass six miles northwest of Saipan.

Tenorio could not say if the two whale incidents are related. “We’re just doing what we can to help out and collaborate and try to get whatever information we can out of this, find out what the cause was, and how we can avoid it or how we can treat it later on,” he added.

Several community members were at the site when the whale was euthanized.

Arnold I. Palacios, director for DFW, said that having whale incidents for two consecutive days is “very unusual.”

Y.J. Nakayama, who lives at the Garapan housing project, said his mom who works at Hyatt Regency Saipan called to tell him about the beached whale. He immediately went to Micro Beach with his girlfriend Millianna Camacho.

“It’s weird,” said Nakayama upon seeing a stranded whale for the first time. “This kind of animal barely swims to the shore and I believe it belongs to the ocean.”

Vincent Naputi Mettao, who witnessed a dead whale wash ashore in Chalan Kanoa back in 1993, drove with his four children all the way from Koblerville after he found out about the whale through his nephew.

“I feel sad seeing this whale lying here and finally put down to sleep,” he said.