Skip to content
All articles
  • All articles
  • About whales & dolphins
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Fundraising
  • Green Whale
  • Kids blogs
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Scottish Dolphin Centre
  • Stop whaling
We're at COP28 to Save the Whale, Save the World.

We’re at COP28 to save the whale, save the world

Ed Goodall Ed is WDC's head of intergovernmental engagement. He meets with world leaders to...
Gray whales from drone.

We’re taking steps to uncover the mysteries of whales

Vicki James Vicki is WDC's protected areas coordinator, she helps to create safe ocean spaces...
We must protect our non-human allies. Image: Tom Brakefield, aurore murguet, johan63

We’re urging governments to protect all of our climate heroes – CITES

Katie Hunter Katie supports WDC's engagement in intergovernmental conversations and is working to end captivity...
The Natütama Foundation are dedicated to protecting endangered river dolphins. Image: Natutama

Guardians of the Amazon: protecting the endangered river dolphins

Ali Wood Ali is WDC's education projects coordinator. She is the editor of Splash! and KIDZONE,...

Learning to rescue stranded whales in Adelaide

Whales and dolphins swimming free in the ocean are the very essence of controlled grace. Stranded on shore they are pathetically helpless.

There appear to be many reasons cetaceans strand, including getting lost and confused, being sick or injured, or being chased there by predators such as sharks and orcas. Evidence is accumulating that loud noises produced by various human activities also play a role.

It is very clear that the sooner cetaceans can be rescued after coming ashore, the greater is their chance of survival. Having a pool of trained people can significantly reduce the response time of a rescue.

Courses on how to assist at a stranding are now run in many parts of the world. Last weekend I ran one in Adelaide, Australia for thirty government staff and volunteers (including two people from the board of WDC Australasia). The course involved providing people with some basic biological information on cetaceans and the ones which strand in our region, followed by step by step instruction on how to deal with different stranding scenarios.

We don’t have very many live strandings in the Adelaide area but we are certainly much better equipped to handle one quickly and effectively now!