Xinhua News Agency, Hangzhou, July 9th. In the past few days, the rescue of 12 melon head whales stranded in Linhai City, Zhejiang Province has moved people's hearts.
As of press time, 6 melon-headed whales have been released into the sea, 5 melon-headed whales have died, and the remaining one continues to stay in the retreat for treatment due to poor health.
What is its physical status?
Can it be released smoothly?
On the 8th, the reporter visited the temporary shelter of the last melon-headed whale again.
The treatment of the last melon head whale continues
The reporter saw on the scene that the melon-headed whale was covered with a white towel and there were two bags of ice beside its body.
Two underwater workers hugged it head to tail.
The breathing holes floating on the water spray from time to time, and sometimes water splashes on the staff's faces.
Since the rescue of stranded melon head whales began on the evening of July 6, more than 40 technicians from Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo and other aquariums have been fighting on the front line without sleep.
"24-hour full escort, change towels every 3 hours to keep the body moist and cool, to prevent moisture loss on the back." Chen Peng, supervisor of the training department of Hangzhou Changqiao Polar Ocean Park, has been standing on one leg in the water for more than five hours and the other leg Step on the ladder and make sure that the head of the whale is resting on his thigh, so that the head is not too low and choking on the water.
On the 8th, the local surface temperature exceeded 40 degrees Celsius.
"In order to provide a good treatment environment for melon head whales, a large amount of broken ice is thrown into the pool to control the water temperature." said Liu Quansheng, technical director of Hangzhou Changqiao Polar Ocean Park.
Expert: There are actually very few cases of successful rescue of stranded cetaceans
The reporter confirmed from several staff responsible for transporting melonhead whales to sea on the evening of the 7th that of the 6 melonhead whales that were about to be released to the sea that night, 2 of them died on their way to the pier, and the remaining 4 were released as planned.
Zhang Peijun, an associate researcher at the Institute of Deep Sea Science and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that it is very difficult to rescue stranded cetaceans all over the world, and the success rate is low.
At present, 6 of the 12 stranded melon-headed whales have been successfully released, which is not easy.
Why did 2 melon head whales die during transportation?
The reporter interviewed a number of professionals. They said that according to the diagnosis results of the professional veterinarian team, the blood test indicators of the two melonhead whales were acceptable before they were released. However, due to the limitation of on-site testing conditions, the physical condition of the melonhead whales was not comprehensive grasp.
"There are many uncontrollable factors, and adult wild individuals are prone to a strong stress response when they are transported." Zhang Peijun said that stranded melon-headed whales may have health problems themselves, and the probability of survival of deep-diving whales is very low once they are stranded.
From the holding point to the release to the sea, there will be a certain period of transportation. What are the transportation conditions for the melonhead whale?
Liu Quansheng said that under time constraints and limited conditions, all the vehicles transporting melonhead whales were padded with sponges to maintain a certain depth of water to reduce the pressure on their organs and were accompanied by professionals throughout the process.
"Melon-headed whales belong to deep-diving whales. There are very limited researches on the biology of melon-headed whales worldwide, and there are no successful cases of artificial breeding," said Mu Kai, director of the Institute of Biology, Haichang Ocean Park, Shanghai. Long-term artificial breeding may interfere with their living habits, so they should be released to nature as soon as possible.
Everyone is praying for good news
In this rescue, the local organization organized a professional team to participate in the rescue, invested a lot of manpower and material resources, and many people spontaneously participated in the rescue, which bought precious time for the rescue of the melon head whale.
"There are a lot of pressures and difficulties in rescue work, but the purpose will not change, and the rescue will not stop." Liu Quansheng said that at present, all the people involved are going all out to take care of the last melon head whale staying here, and help it be healthy at all costs. Come back home".
After nearly three days of getting along, staying together for seventeen or eight hours a day, Chen Peng and other aquarium staff have developed feelings for this melon head whale.
The staff also took local materials and made a simple "stretcher" for this melon head whale, allowing it to recuperate in a more comfortable posture while maintaining its balance.
In order to restore the weakened melon head whale as much as possible, the staff continued to infuse it with nutritional supplements in its tail.
Liu Quansheng said that the rescue team will guard the whole process and observe the physical condition of the melon-headed whale every hour, and adjust the amount of medicine on the basis of this.
"At present, its health is not very optimistic." Mou Kai said that if it can get better through medical treatment, he will still choose a suitable place to release it to the sea, and hope that it can find groups of melonhead whales in the wild.
(Written by reporters: Wei Donghua, Xu Shunda, Zhang Zhaoqi, Lin Guangyao)