Beached whale in Bali saved by locals

Beached whale in Bali saved by locals

Animal lovers and tourists try to save a beached whale
on the famous Nusa Dua Beach in Bali. The 4.5-meter-long whale
as beached on Tuesday on the white-sand beach behind the
Grand Hyatt Hotel.

The whale was first spotted by Dewa Gde Mertana, an employee
of the five-star hotel, at 5 a.m local time.

"I was doing the morning cleaning when a strange sound alerted
me to the presence of the giant fish," said Mertana.

Mertana immediately called for others to assist him in saving
the whale. Hotel employees rushed to the scene and, using an
excavator, transported the whale to a safer place.

By 7 a.m, the whale had been lowered into a makeshift plastic
pond filled with sea water. A tent was erected over the pond --
located somewhere in the hotel compound -- to protect the whale
from the scorching Bali sun. Hotel employees and tourists
constantly poured water over the powerless creature, while others
affectionately held and stroked its body. "It was a very critical
period. By continuously soaking her with salt water, the rescuers
significantly increased her chances of survival," Windia Adnyana
of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) later said.

Several of WWF's scientists, who had inspected the whale,
later concluded that it was either a Southern or Gervais' Beaked
whale. "Anyway, it is probably a female, because we do not see
any teeth in her mouth," WWF's Veda Santiaji said.

Several hours later, in the presence of a crowd of
hundreds of people, the whale showed signs of
recovery. It grew restless and jets of water spurted from its
blowhole.

The whale was finally transported out to sea in a boat at
around 11.45 a.m. The lively cheers of the crowd accompanied the
whale's release. -- I Wayan Juniartha