The other day, something stupefying occurred on little old Hayling Island. an 8 m long Northern Bottlenose whale beached on one of the mudflats just north of Hayling in Langstone Harbour, Hampshire.
Alas, the whale had experienced severe dehydration, which caused it to be suffering from kidney failure, when it became immobilised on Sunday night.
There was a tremendous rescue system, where humans attempted tirelessly to save the Northern Bottlenose whale’s life. At one point the trained medics felt that the had to issue a lethal injection to put the whale to sleep. But, the whale then swam out to sea for one last time. Regrettably, it came back towards the harbour again and was then beached for a second and final time.
The trained vets concluded that the only compassionate thing to do would be to issue the lethal injection, which they did on Friday morning. They used Immobilon, which was a very rapid and fatal strength of anaesthetic.
If the mammal weren’t put to sleep, the experts believe that it would have taken about 2 further days for the mammal to die, during which it would have remained sick and distressed.
It seemed bizarre that the 6 tonne mammal, which is usually found about 3000 miles away, finished up here on Hayling Island, but it is another wonderful story that this south coast little island, called Hayling 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.
