RESCUE EFFORTS; 1,000-POUND WHALE STRUGGLES FOR LIFE.Byline: Lisa Van Proyen Staff Writer A 1,000-pound beaked whale beaked whale n. Any of various toothed whales of the family Ziphiidae, having a long beaklike snout and a small dorsal fin and inhabiting all of the oceans. Noun 1. was rescued Friday after lifeguards found it drifting off Point Dume Point Dume is a point on the coast of Malibu, California. Point Dume forms the northern end of the Santa Monica Bay, and Point Dume Headlands Park affords a vista of stretching to the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Santa Catalina Island. County Beach, an unusual occurrence for that kind of whale, marine experts said. A Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County lifeguard spotted the 10-foot-long gray mammal about 200 feet off the shore and struggled with other lifeguards to redirect it back into deeper waters. It didn't work. ``She did not seem to have the ability to negotiate the surf and continued to wash back in,'' said Tom Viren, section chief for the Lifeguard Division of the Los Angeles County Fire Department Not to be confused with Los Angeles Fire Department. The Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD), serves unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County, as well as 58 cities and towns that choose to have the county provide fire and EMS services, including the City of La . The whale's plight brought back memories of a 4-day-old gray whale that came to be known as J.J., which became stranded in 1997 near Venice Beach. J.J. was rescued and nursed back to health at Sea World and released into the ocean in 1998. ``Ever since J.J., we thought we'd be the obvious people to assist in these rescues. So we trained crews last winter,'' Viren said. These newly trained lifeguards - assisted by three swimmers including Pacoima resident Lloyd Watson - guided the whale to the shore, making sure to keep her blow hole free of water, Viren said. ``She was slippery and moving around,'' Viren said. ``She looks like Flipper - like a very big dolphin.'' About five beachgoers helped lifeguards dig out sand to build a pond to keep the mammal in water. Sixteen people, including lifeguards, sheriff's deputies and fire suppression workers from Las Flores Las Flores can refer to:
The whale was then taken to Friends of the Sea Lion sea lion, fin-footed marine mammal of the eared seal family (Otariidae). Like the other member of this family, the fur seal, the sea lion is distinguished from the true seal by its external ears, long, flexible neck, supple forelimbs, and hind flippers that can be in Laguna Beach Laguna Beach (ləg  `nə), city (1990 pop. 23,170), Orange co., S Calif., on the Pacific coast; founded 1887, inc. 1927. , which could better accommodate the large mammal, said Jackie Ott, director of the Marine Mammal Care Center. Marine life officials said they could not immediately determine why the whale was struggling in the water. But marine experts who evaluated her said her chances for survival were dismal. ``It's extremely unusual to see them up here,'' said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, who evaluated the mammal at the Marine Mammal Care Center at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro on Friday. ``They're very unusual - almost a cross between a whale and a dolphin. They have long beaks like dolphins, but they have differences that put it in its own group,'' she said. The last known time beaked whales beached themselves was 10 years ago in San Francisco, and both died within a month, said Dawn Smith, director of animal care at the California Wildlife Center in Malibu. CAPTION(S): 2 Photos Photo: (1--2--Color) Above, swimmer Lloyd Watson of Pacoima, right, attempts to keep a 1,000-pound beaked whale calm by petting and talking to her at Point Dume County Beach on Friday. At left, rescue workers take the whale to a truck to be transported to the Marine Mammal Care Center. Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer |
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