{"id":271214,"date":"2025-11-19T07:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T07:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/271214\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T07:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T07:21:09","slug":"stranded-whale-euthanized-after-failed-rescue-attempt-off-oregon-coast-oregon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/271214\/","title":{"rendered":"Stranded whale euthanized after failed rescue attempt off Oregon coast | Oregon"},"content":{"rendered":"

A humpback whale stranded off the coast of Oregon<\/a> was euthanized on Monday following a failed rescue attempt from several organizations and agencies.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the young whale was found washed ashore near San Marine state park, KOMO News reported<\/a>. Over the weekend, individuals rallied together to try to help the mammal, who appeared to be caught in a fishing net, but were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

Oregon state police showed up at 10am on Sunday to clear the area, and a rescue mission was launched on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

Trained rescuers tried to wrap a bridle around the whale and attach it to a boat out at sea in an attempt to turn her towards the ocean, Lisa Ballance from the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University said, according to OPB.<\/p>\n

But as high tide approached, the rope separated and the bridle slipped off the whale. Ballance told KATU<\/a> that the situation was \u201crapidly\u201d changing, noting how complex it is to move such a large animal especially with the risk of injury. She added that a full-scale rescue effort was not possible due to limited available resources.<\/p>\n

When the attempt to reorient the whale and tow her back to sea proved unsuccessful, experts determined that euthanasia was the most humane option, according to a statement<\/a> released on Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), which is responsible for the stewardship of the nation\u2019s ocean resources and their habitat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prolonged period of time onshore had left the whale weak and unlikely to survive. Veterinarians euthanized the whale late afternoon on November 17. Responders will conduct a necropsy to assess the animal\u2019s overall health and help determine why it [was] stranded,\u201d Noaa said in the statement.<\/p>\n

Other methods of rescue, such as refloating and even the rope and pulley system that the rescuers attempted, are challenging to do and not always successful. Similarly, pulling a large whale back to the ocean is considered inhumane and has its risks, as it could lead to severe injury. Dredging a channel for a whale would also be impractical, since it has historically led to whale drowning, Noaa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very sad, tragic situation,\u201d Ballance said. \u201cThere\u2019s no way to spin this positively. I know the general public is heartbroken \u2026 It\u2019s hard to watch, hard to experience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A humpback whale stranded off the coast of Oregon was euthanized on Monday following a failed rescue attempt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-271214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-unitedkingdom","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}