IFAW’s rescue team responds to three calls involving three species in one day

PORT OF YARMOUTH – The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) recently announced that its marine mammal rescue team responded to calls involving three different species in Cape Town waters in a single day.

The initial call was in response to reports on Tuesday that a huge 57-foot fin whale had stranded in Wellfleet.

The team performed an autopsy on the dead whale, but initial results were inconclusive as to the cause of death.

While the first team was absent, a second team responded to reports of a one-year-old gray seal in poor condition in Truro, which returned to sea as the tides rose.

A third report drew another team to the site of a stranded dolphin in Eastham, where rescue teams attempted to carry out life-saving treatment on the dolphin which unfortunately did not survive.

“The initial report of a stranded whale in Wellfleet arrived on Tuesday,” said Misty Niemeyer, animal rescue manager at IFAW. “We knew from the first photos that we were probably dealing with a fin whale, which is not only the second largest mammal in the world, but also an endangered species according to the globally recognized IUCN Red List.

“Fin whales are frequently seen swimming in the waters just off Cape Cod,” she continued, “so unsurprisingly it is unfortunate that they sometimes end up stranded on our beaches. Fin whales are faced with the same human-made threats as other whale species, such as entanglements in fishing gear and collisions with vessels. ”

To report a stranded whale, dolphin or seal on Cape Cod or in Southeast Massachusetts, call the IFAW stranded hotline at 508-743-9548

By, Matthew Tomlinson, CapeCod.com NewsCenter