Our Group Trips Coordinator, Michelle, recently returned home from a trip to South Africa with high school students on an Academic Africa ambassador trip from Providence Day School.
During their exciting journeys through South Africa, they experienced something very unexpected . . . See below for the story from Michelle’s eyes:
Today we were on our way out to sightsee in Cape Town but as we were leaving our hotel, Team House in Noordhoek Beach, we saw quite a bit of commotion on the beach. The waves had been quite high for the past couple of days and we assumed all of the commotion was due to an injured surfer.
As we headed down to the parking lot, we learned that several pilot whales had beached themselves when they had lost their navigator whale at sea.
Just to give you a little bit of background on pilot whales, these whales are extremely unique to other aquatic mammals. They have the ability to dive more than 3,200 feet and are super fast, reaching speeds of up to 29 feet per second! They have large, bulbous heads and reach up to 18 feet in length.
As we learned of the news about the stranded pilot whales, the Providence Day School students became immediately concerned about the well-being of these creatures and the local authorities asked if they would be willing to help Sea Rescue. The students were absolutely thrilled and did not hesitate for a second to help the plight of these beached whales.
With the mission of saving these whales in mind, the dedicated students headed to the beach with buckets and a fantastic group and volunteer mentality.
We kept the whales upright as we bathed them with cool water from the ocean, running back and forth with our buckets to ensure the whales remained wet. For the next 3 hours we covered the whales with towels and poured seawater over their bodies and didn’t think for a second to stop. Although we were tired we kept moving and only had the well being of these magnificent creatures in our minds.
See below for some pictures from the day:
It was humbling to see these large creatures struggling to breath and so helpless. The students didn’t care that they were giving up a day of fun and sightseeing in Cape Town—they much preferred to lend their support and assistance to the pilot whales that were in such desperate need of rehabilitation. I immediately knew this day was a day these students would never forget and an experience we could never replicate. I know that these students were deeply affected by this experience in a positive way, and hopefully, the experience encouraged them to bring awareness to wildlife and conservation for the rest of their lives.