Senegalese Fisherman Save Dozens of Stranded Whales

"So many times you hear of this happening in developed countries and always the whales were unable to be saved. I always wondered why with so many boats, trucks and heavy equipment available. Here's a story where people without much means were able to move dozens of beached whales safely back to the water. I applaud them." JV

by Emmanuel Braun
More than 100 pilot whales, which have bulbous foreheads and can grow to over 4 meters long, beached themselves overnight at Yoff, a traditional Lebou fishing community on the Cap Vert peninsula, mainland Africa's most westerly point.

Local fishermen struggled through the night to drag the animals back to sea from the sloping sandy beach, using their brightly colored open wooden boats known as "pirogues" and attaching ropes around the animals' sleek, black bodies.
"No one slept last night because all the fishermen were called out to help save the whales," said Iba Dieye, a local fisherman from Yoff.
"About 100 of the big fish washed up on the beach last night at around 9 p.m.. We worked all night to try to drag them back into the ocean. We got about 80 back into the water with ropes, our pirogues and our hands. But the ones still here are dead now," said another fisherman, Elima Bah.
Nevertheless, hours after the mass stranding, local adults and children were still trying to haul some of the remaining live whales back into the waves.

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