Rescue underway to help pilot whales that washed ashore in Cape Breton
CBC
Around 10 pilot whales washed up in Port Hood, N.S., on Sunday, says an official with the Marine Animal Response Society.
"Some of them have died, some are alive," executive director Tonya Wimmer said in a brief interview. She said her information came from people at the scene who were trying to help the whales.
Wimmer and a team from the group were heading to Port Hood, which is on the western coast of Cape Breton, to assist.
Wimmer said a team from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans was also going there.
Owen Campbell, Kieran MacDonald, Aiden MacDonald and Lucas MacDougall were bicycling to the gym with friend Hunter MacDonald to celebrate his 14th birthday.
The boys, all from the Judique area, spotted the whales on the shore around 12:45 p.m.
"We jumped off our bikes and then we ran down the hill and tried to give them some water so it could save them," Hunter said.
Hunter said he and his friends managed to save three of the whales, including a baby, but he fears the rest are dead.
Hunter said between 30 and 50 people showed up eventually, many with cameras.
As he was running down to save the whales, Owen Campbell said he called his mother to try to get more people to come and help.
"I thought it was pretty crazy," Campbell said.
"A couple years ago, down the Shore Road in Judique, there were about 30 whales that got washed up there ... so a lot of people knew what they're kind of doing."
Campbell said the whales felt like wet leather.
A photo provided to CBC News from someone at the scene shows around two dozen people trying to assist.