Whale Becomes Frozen on Hayling IslandHayling Island Gets a WhaleYou Won’t Believe the Size of the Catch on HaylingWhaley Sorry to See You
The other day,an awe-inspiring thing passed off on little old Hayling Island. an 8 m long Northern Bottlenose whale beached on some of the mudflats just to the north of Hayling in the adjoinging Langstone Harbour, Hampshire.
Tragically, the whale had experienced severe dehydration, which meant it was suffering from kidney failure, when it became immobilised on Sunday night.
There was a great rescue system, where people tried bravely to salvage the whale’s life. There was a time when the team thought that the kind thing to do would be to put the formidable whale to sleep with a lethal injection. However, the whale then floated out to sea yet again. Regrettably, it came back towards the harbour again and was beached for a second and last time.
The trained vets decided that the only caring thing to do would be to supply the lethal injection, which they did on Friday morning. They used Immobilon, which was a very quick acting and fatal strength of anaesthetic.
If the mammal was not put to sleep, the experts believe that it would have taken about two further days for the mammal to die, during which it would have been sick and distressed.
It seemed bizarre that the six tonne mammalian, which is commonly found about 3000 miles away, ended up here on Hayling Island, but it is another wonderful story that Hampshire’s Hayling Island brings to its history.
There were around a dozen firefighters, police, coastguard personnel as well as members of the Hayling Island harvour lifeboat staff involved in the attempt.
