Oceana Brands (St Helena Bay) had the privilege of hosting a mass stranding workshop on the 5 June, where information about whales, dolphins and mass stranding would be communicated in order to educate all interested parties on these subjects. The incident at Kommetjie had naturally attracted many people from the surrounding areas, this being Saldanha, Vredenburg, Langebaan, Veldrif and Lamberts Bay. In addition, representatives from the S.A.P.S., M.C.M., N.S.R.I., Cape Nature Conservation and local media (The Weslander) were also present, as well as Oceana Brands’ employees.

The workshop was presented by Meredith Thornton of the University of Pretoria’s Mammal Research Institute (M.R.I.). Meredith has many years of experience with cetaceans and more importantly her knowledge of mass stranding made her the perfect candidate to manage the workshop.

The objectives of the workshop were as follows:

• Obtain a better understanding of cetaceans (dolphins and whales)
• Reasons as to why they mass strand
• Train all present parties to become competent volunteer rescuers

The workshop was not conducted as a lecture; it was more a case of a ‘question and answer’ session, while staying on track to complete the objectives.

The audience was asked what they would do if they had spotted a single or group of whales stranded on the beach. The question sounded simple enough, but to our surprise we struggled to figure out what steps to take.

People eventually came up with a few ideas:

• Telephone for help – Dolphin Action Protection Group
• Identify species, length, colour etc.
• Determine whether the mammal is still alive
• Check whether vehicles have easy access to the beach
• How many mammals are stranded

The next topic on our objective list was the reasoning behind a mass stranding. Meredith explained that dolphins and whales that are found stranded alone are usually old, ill or injured. These mammals have very strong social bonds and the distress calls from one of their ‘family’ members result in the herd lingering close to the shore wanting to help. This inevitably leads to a mass stranding if no humans are close by to intervene and keep the rest of the herd in deep water. Another possible reason is known as magnetic anomalies. Some scientists believe that whales use the earth’s magnetic field to navigate, and some of these magnetic field lines unfortunately cross paths with dry land resulting in the beaching of whales.

The group was then ushered to the beach, where a role playing session of a mass stranding took place to reinforce what was earlier explained. Three life-size rubber dolphins were used, and the group was given different roles to play at the scene. The roles portrayed were: media, public, rescue volunteers, Marine and Coastal Management (M.C.M.) and the police. The idea behind the role–playing session was to give everyone an inkling of what it would be like at an actual mass stranding. Everyone agreed that even though we were just acting, the atmosphere was tense with the ‘public’ and ‘media’ trying to see the ‘whales’ and wanting to push them back into the sea, the ‘police’ and ‘M.C.M.’ trying to keep the crowd under control, and the rescue volunteers concentrating on calming the stranded mammals and keeping them cool. The role–playing session was definitely an eye opener and our imaginations can take things further as to how chaotic it must have been on that dreadful day at Kommetjie.

The workshop was concluded with a slide show presentation of the events that took place at Kommetjie and the group had to identify any mistakes made by the rescue volunteers. Oceana Brands (St Helena Bay) and the Green Stars would like to thank Meredith for presenting the workshop and for sharing her experiences with us. We all hope and pray the occurrence of another mass stranding can be averted, but in the event that it does happen, we will use the skills learnt at the workshop to try and save these amazing creatures.

Acknowledgement to Darryl Hess – Oceana Brands St Helena Bay