To Save A Whale

Saving the creature that had washed up on a Vancouver Island beach would be no small task.

- J.B. Mackinnon

EARLY-MORNING SURFERS and beach walkers found it first. The animal—a dolphin? a pilot whale?—was as long as a surfboard and lay heavily in the shallows. Its eyes were closed, but it was alive,clasping and unclasping its blowhole as if gasping for air.

A sea creature in need of help could do worse than to end up on Chesterman Beach. Just five minutes from Tofino, a Canadian town on the west coast of Vancouver Island, approximately 315 kilometers from Victoria, British Columbia, the beach is famous for its earth-hipster vibe, and is visited by people at all hours and in all weather. Waves from the open Pacific Ocean endlessly crash ashore to spread across the sand like hands smoothing a bedsheet. At the tide line you might find whips of bull kelp, a trembling moon jellyfish or a mussel shell the size of a human heart. You might also find a stranded whale.

Not knowing any more than that the animal should not be on land, a surfer towed the aquatic visitor by its tail into deeper water. But when he set the creature free, it only swirled helplessly in the waves until it was stranded again.

AT 9:17 A.M. on July 10, 2014, bylaw enforcement officers Rob Letts and Tarni Jacobsen arrived at Chesterman Beach for a routine sweep for illegal campers, campfires or parties. Instead, a tourist came out of the morning fog. “There’s a dolphin stranded on the beach,” he said.

A small group of people were gathered around a lump at the water’s edge. No one knew what the creature was, but there was no doubt it was suffering. Its chin (technically the rostrum) and flippers were badly scraped and bleeding.