{"id":291204,"date":"2025-11-17T21:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T21:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/291204\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T21:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T21:43:10","slug":"stranded-whale-calf-in-cornwall-dies-after-major-rescue-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/291204\/","title":{"rendered":"Stranded whale calf in Cornwall dies after major rescue effort"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">A fin whale calf has been put down after it was found stranded in Cornwall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) said members were called to the Mevagissey area shortly after 07:00 GMT.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">It said a team of 15 trained marine mammal medics, including two veterinary professionals, examined the stranded female fin whale calf, which was about 6m (20ft) long.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">It said the calf was in &#8220;poor nutritional condition&#8221; with no adult whales nearby, which &#8220;strongly indicates maternal separation, a situation in which survival is not possible for such a young animal&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The rescuers said a fin whale calf was &#8220;completely dependent&#8221; on its mother for frequent feeding and could not have survived independently at sea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;With the whale&#8217;s compromised condition and its inability to thrive without its mother, the BDMLR team and attending veterinary professionals have been carefully considering euthanasia options to stop further suffering,&#8221; the organisation said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;The priority on scene is to manage the calf&#8217;s welfare, ensure public safety and minimise any further distress to the animal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;Leaving the whale on the beach is not compatible with survival and, without veterinary intervention, the calf would face a prolonged and inevitable death from starvation and physiological collapse.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fin whale calf has been put down after it was found stranded in Cornwall. British Divers Marine&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-291204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}