we want to take you now down to a developing story in Florida on Venice there as uh on the Gulf side as we continue to follow the latest in a beached sperm well 70 feet long we are getting Aerials from our teams down there you can see it here on live now from Fox it is there potentially uh on 70 ft long off the coast of Venice the live adult Sperm well confirmed to beach around 7:00 a.m. on Sunday morning this according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission the city says the w
hale is on a sandb bar about 50 yards from the service Club Park certainly very sad scene there as we're continuing to follow it we also have a tweet from Saras sod the sheriff down there assisting Venice Police Mo Marine laboratory with a beached wh just off the coast of Venice this happened around 7 a.m. and of course couple hours later they were uh hearing information that it is still live there I do have some more video as well cerly certainly a very sad scene you can see the fin of this wha
le off of a sandbar some 50 yards out from this beach as they say a multi-agency team of stranding network Partners including the mo Marine laboratory Florida Fish and Wildlife Clearwater Marine Aquarium the University of Florida Sarasota dolphin project responding in collaboration there with the city and the Sheriff's Department officials they ask people to avoid the area to allow moat staff to conduct their assessment they're also talking about the Rarity of this to happen as of course off the
coast there in Florida off the panle on the Gulf side you can see different uh boats on uh on the water as well kind of assisting with this for more on this let's take you out to some sound we had earlier today from a person within the moat Marine laboratory as they were giving an update on this uh very sad story out of Venice Florida when did we find out that the whale was uh we got a call early this morning uh right around 8:30 that this animal was about 150 yards off the beach uh on a sandba
r um unfortunately it is still alive um right now it's on another Sand Bar um and we're standing here in the between between the whale and us is a very deep trough so that's why we're waiting to just until conditions become safe for us to work so far what information do we know um we know from the size and that it's Pro likely an adult Sperm Whale um and it appears very thin but that's all we can really tell at the moment how often is it that something like this happen it's it's very rare for us
to have um I've been at moat for almost 15 years and we've never had a storm wheel here so um they do occur off the Gulf but for them to be at the beach is not common um is it possible to save unfortunately no um not only it should be living far off the continental shelf unfortunately it's it's close to Shore and it is very skinny so that tells us already that something's been pretty wrong with it for a while um it'll take a while for us to actually figure out what's going on with it do we thin
k that's why it ended up closer to shore likely um you know it's we aren't sure exactly why they come close to shore but usually we think it's when they're not feeling well and become disoriented and come close to shore yes so what's the plan to get this well out um right now we're waiting on tide and um the conditions to become safe for us to work so once once conditions improve we'll start making more of a plan what would the process be of getting some thing I mean we're talking you said how b
ig is this well 7 um we're we're estimating around 50 ft uh we will work with multiple partners um and a KN cropsy team an excavator uh you know we have currently we have you know Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Venice Venice City Venice Police Department Sarasota County Sheriff's Office um University of Florida is on their way um Florida Fish Wildlife Conservation clear water marine aquarium I think I've gotten all of our partners that are here so far so really right now it's
we you know human safy is our is Paramount um and we're so we're trying to just be poised so that as soon as conditions change that we can get in there and get to work what time do you guys received the a call about the whale it was about 8:30 this morning it was our first call can you talk a little bit about the response from the different agencies that are out here um you know we we are very much a network uh we all we work with all of our partners um you know as soon as our our lab got the ca
ll First and immediately got on the phone with Florida ficient Wildlife Conservation Commission Noah fishery service um Sarasota dolphin resarch program clear water marine aquarium all of our all of our local Partners to get them here CU it really it takes a village when we have something like this so we'll get as many of our partners on scene as we can talking about this kind of species of well sperm well they're a deep water y yes they're a they're a tooth wh they live far offshore um they uh
dive to really deep depths um the large um sorry uh they um you know the the gulf is a shallow water environment I I think uh the the continental shelf so these animals are are far off off the continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico so they're not they aren't generally this close to shore on you know they're off of the Shelf off the shelf break are they in good abundance in our Coast I'm not certain trying to think if there's anything else is there anything else that you think that we should kno
w um just you know right now it really is human safety is our our biggest concern um you know all of us are desperate to want to get to the whale we just unfortunately can't do it safely right now so just you know please be patient understand that you know we are we are trying to get everything ready so that as soon as we can mobilize we will when you guys do mobilize are what is the plan once the water's better and everything are we bringing the whale back out or are we bringing him up here uh
we'll the first thing we will try to do is end the animals suffering so we will be giving it he heavy sedations and trying to just make it more comfortable um that's our that's going to be our priority once that's taken care of will make the plans um I I'm I've been in contact with Sarasota County and the city of Venice to figure out if it's something that we would do here or if we try to take it elsewhere um those details are just still being worked out is there a primary in this uh in this inc
ident a primary agency or is it a um no Fisheries is the ultimate responsible party for you know the primary agency that gives us the authority to be here um technically it's Mo stranding response area but we also share it with FWC um the FWC biologist will be the KNE cropsy team lead we'll all be working together so it's it really is a a group effort an incident like this you know mo Marine how prepared is it for you know an incident of this size um you know we we try to always be at the ready
we have you know I have a large whale trailer at the lab um that has all of our gear um we always try to keep all of our equipment ready ready to go um just for these sorts of instances so so the necropsy take place here on the beach or we all take it to another we aren't certain yet that those details haven't been worked out and then so so far we don't really have any like estimated timeline of when this will all happen no um you know the animal has been showing signs of distress so you know we
we just we were just kind of watching and monitoring all the vital signs until we can get close enough to do something for him safely or her our very sad conclusion potentially upcoming is they were talking about human safety as this animal certainly in distress there as well as it is beached on a sandb bar some 50 yards off this uh Beach there in Venice Florida on the Gulf side between Tampa and Fort Meers I do want to put up just some more video and aerial coverage they were following from ea
rlier today as they are talking about this about 50 foot sperm whale they beached off the coast and it's a rarity to see because these animals live at a signif significant depth uh so potentially it was distressed got disoriented and that's what led it to this Coastline and get beached eventually
Comments
The fact this intelligent creature is suffering and cannot be helped is making me so sad I’m tearing up..
I originally went to college to become a cetologist (whale biologist). Though I didn't graduate as that, I've always kept a strong interest in whales. A few things... - The experts on the scene estimated it's size to be about 50ft, not 70ft. - They likely don't plan to save the whale. The expert interviewed repeatedly said it was skinny. A skinny toothed whale is a very bad sign. That means it is too sick or injured to hunt and so is probably slowly starving to death. They will probably euthanize it. - At 50ft long, it is probably an adult male because female sperm whales are noticeably smaller...40ft would be big for a female. - Trying to save it would be very complicated and dangerous for both the people involved AND the whale. When I was a young boy and first becoming interested in whales, a young 25ft male sperm whale beached himself near Fire Island (I'm from Long Island). It was determined that he had pneumonia. They brought him to an inlet and fed him squid laced with antibiotics for a number of days. He regained his health and they were able to release him. They named him "Physty". In any case, dealing with a young and scared animal that is 25ft and that probably weighed around 3 tons is not the same as trying to deal with an adult and scared animal that is 50ft and is probably weighing in at 30-35 tons skinny.
Please help him! What a terrible way to die! We owe it to them to protect them at all costs !
Please help the whale
I see no assistance being given
We really had a manatee swim up the Mississippi to Memphis after Katrina. They called the manatee rescue organization, and they told us to leave him alone. Then he slipped out of sight in a day or two. It was a long search to find his body. We didn’t crowd him, so he disappeared. It took too long for them to come get him. I was disappointed in the response.
Poor dear whale. I pray it can return to deep water.❤️🙏🐳
With all the equipment we've built and the technology we have why haven't we designed a submersible that's able to push this mammal back into the depths? So sad.
These animals deserve this planet more than we do there not the ones destroying it for there self interest. If these animals could communicate with humans i think they would have alot to say to us and how we treat this planet sad such a magnificent animal has to go through this 😞
That dude definitely didn't have a chance to rehearse that report...
Pls pls save him
When the tides change ‘we’ll make more of a plan’. What a bunch of useless ‘specialists’.
My guess is our military is playing games with radar. Lots of strange behavior there with ocean creatures.
The woman says - unfortunately it’s still alive. They aren’t going to save it.
Please save him
Just saw a vid yesterday about fish acting weird down in the Keys.
I’ve heard that Males have been known to reach a length of 60 FT or more. I’ve heard that there was 1 that was an 85 Footer that was known in the year 1820 that took out the Essex Whaling Ship which was the true story behind the inspiration of Moby Dick. This Sperm Whale must be nearly Full Grown. Hopefully the biologist gets this Ocean Giant back to the deeper water before it ends up in the same beached fate like most of the others in the past.
It's a shame as much as technology has advanced, that we still are unable to figure out why they come to shore. Something has got to be screwing with their sonar but whatever the reason, we need to frikin' stop doing whatever we are doing.
I wish they would have asked WHY the whale can’t be saved? How does she know that when they haven’t been able to examine her yet?
It's definitely only 50 feet....She says that in the interview not sure where they got 70 ft from.