Wandering whale's ordeal leaves scientists puzzled

TANABE, Wakayama Prefecture-- Researchers are still puzzled over how a wayward whale managed to wander into a narrow cove here, survive for nearly three weeks and then find its way out again.

The 16-meter-long male sperm whale was first spotted early on the morning of May 14 in Uchinoura Bay, a crooked cove at the southern end of the larger Tanabe Bay that spills out into the Pacific Ocean.

After failed attempts to coax the 50-ton leviathan out of the shallow bay, the whale maneuvered itself out of Tanabe Bay on June 2, 20 days later.

Experts say it is extremely rare for a sperm whale, which normally inhabits deep waters, to survive for so long stranded in shallow waters, and then return to its normal habitat unaided.

The saga captivated not only local residents, many of whom were seeing a live whale for the first time, but also the attention of a nation as footage of the whale was aired.

Tanabe, and much of the southern part of the Kii Peninsula in Wakayama Prefecture, once were the cradle of traditional coastal whaling, in which dozens of whaling vessels formed fleets to drive large whales into nets offshore.

Nearby in the town of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, where a full specimen of a sperm whale is displayed at a museum, coastal whaling continues--much to the ire of conservationists.

A 66-year-old man who saw the whale soon after it was first spotted less than 100 meters offshore recalled how he mistook the large mammal for "an overturned ship."

Hundreds of local residents gathered each day to gawk at the spectacle. At an elementary school overlooking the cove, schoolchildren often shouted words of encouragement for the whale to "hang in there."

As sperm whales normally travel in pods of 10 to 20, and dive to depths of more than 1,000 meters, one expert suggested that the wayward whale was "likely in a state of panic after straying from the herd and wandering into the unfamiliar shallows."

From day one, local officials tried everything they could to help the whale regain its bearings and swim out of the cove.

Around 10 Tanabe municipal government officials waded into knee-deep water banging steel pipes and oil cans in hopes of driving the whale toward the mouth of the cove. Whales are said to dislike metallic sounds.

While the whale, just 20 to 30 meters away, writhed and thrust its body above the water several times, apparently fatigued, it stopped moving after about half an hour.

A task force set up by the city, a local fishing co-operative and others, continued its attempt to get the whale to escape, but the efforts were in vain.

On the sixth day, officials imitated the clicking noises that whales make through an underwater speaker, but again, to no avail.

Hajime Ishikawa of the Institute of Cetacean Research in Tokyo, who visited the city to offer advice, noted that the whale was not only unresponsive to noises, but was constantly facing land. He suggested the creature may have been suffering from a disorder which impaired its hearing, and had lost its sense of direction.

Numerous scars were visible on the whale's body. Bleeding was observed around its dorsal fin. Its pitiful state prompted some irate observers to suggest "towing the whale out of the bay with rope."

But that method was ruled out, primarily out of concerns for safety. In March 2007, a man died attempting to help another wayward sperm whale, after the mammal rammed his boat in Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture.

One week after the Tanabe whale was sighted, city officials decided to avoid agitating the creature, and let nature take its course. While whales are capable of surviving for about a month without food, officials, alarmed that the creature appeared to be weakened, began preparing for the worst by discussing how to dispose of the carcass.

Then on June 1, a city official keeping watch noticed the whale swimming about one kilometer west of the mouth of Uchinoura Bay. Around 1 p.m. the following day, the whale was seen swimming straight toward open waters, submerging several times before lifting its tail high as if to dive to the depths.

It has not been seen since then.

Motoi Yoshioka, a Mie University professor of marine biology, who served as an adviser to the city, said that once the whale reached a depth of 1,000 meters, it would have no trouble finding food.

He said the incident was "a precious case" for future reference, in that a whale managed to return to open waters without beaching itself after spending more than two weeks trapped in a narrow cove.

Meanwhile, Ishikawa, of the Cetacean Research Institute, said he was still unsure whether the whale found its way out of the cove by accident, or because its hearing impairment had recovered.

For now, some Tanabe residents appear satisfied with the explanation that nature has its own ways of solving problems.

"The fact the whale managed to get out on its own when experts said it was impossible, shows that (nature) exceeds human thinking," said a 37-year-old male employee at a fishing pond near Uchinoura.(IHT/Asahi: June 24,2009)