Where there’s a whale, there’s a way
A 20-foot orca that was stranded on rocks in Prince of Wales Island, Ala was luckily freed by wildlife officials, sailors, and an incoming tide.
People who were on boats near the shore saw the whale stuck in a crevice of rocks around 5 feet above the sea line.
The crew on the boat notified the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which gave them the go-ahead to use a seawater pump in order to keep the orca wet and to keep birds away from it.
Aroon Melane captured the rescue effort on video and shared it on TikTok.
“We were working on getting a hose and pump to work,” Melane says in the video. “In the meantime, we used buckets to keep the orca wet.”
The tide eventually returned the whale to the sea some six hours after it was first spotted.
The sea level rose just enough to detach the orca from the rocks so that it could swim away.
Well done to the kind people who spent their day keeping this precious orca safe!
