On reflection . . . .

I slept deeply last night - I haven't been so mentally, physically and emotionally exhasuted in a very long time. I woke this morning with a headache - a bad one - and I felt a bit queasy too - I figured it must have been a bit of sunstroke. A good cup of coffee and plenty of water then a very slow and reflective drive back to Nelson.

I couldn't get any radio reports on whether the whales had refloated overnight but I see a news report tonight that tells me that about 9 refloated themselves overnight (17 refloated themselves on Monday night) and another 34 appear to have survived and are heading out of Golden Bay.

kiwilizzie raised something yesterday which she thought might be a bit controversial - she questioned whether we are foolish to meddle with nature by trying to re-float the whales. I was confident in my answer before I went over there - which is why I went over to help - but strangely, during the second stranding, I too began to question whether we were, in fact, simply prolonging their agonies so that we could feel good about helping.

Whale strandings will have been common occurences in this part of the world long before man arrived to 'help' them. Strandings are a form of natural selection and serve to moderate the species numbers. Man stepping in and effecting 'rescues' such as this one may well be messing with nature in a manner that ultimately doesn't serve the animals well.

On the other side of the coin - the human instinct to want to care for and protect animals we have empathy with is strong and instinctive too.

After over 2 days of whale rescue mentality, having seen the rescue process in action, having witnessed the distressed cries and wails of beached whales, and having witnessed the frenzy and confusion post-float followed by restranding and more distress, I'm no longer sure what I believe it is the 'right' thing to do. The rescues certainly creates a 'feel good' effect on DoC, Project Jonah staff and Joe Public volunteers - but I don't believe that that is what a rescue should be about. What is the best thing for the whales? And ultimately, what is best for them may not sit comfortably alongside the human desire to preserve life at all costs.

I'm going to keep reflecting on this. I'm not so confident in my views any more.