Rescue exercise teaches Islanders how to save stranded marine animals

It's a calm October day in the P.E.I. National Park when a call comes in about a pilot whale stranded in shallow water. A rescue crew assesses the situation from shore, grabs a pontoon and heads out.

Luckily, this is just a drill.The pilot whale is an inflatable version.

"A lot of people are so passionate and they just want to jump in. They want to help these animals," said Tonya Wimmer, the executive director of the Marine Animal Response Society, also known as MARS.

"Like many other things dealing with wildlife, you have to be highly trained."

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The training session Wednesday was meant to simulate real-life marine rescues. Five metreslong and filled with water, the inflatable whale is comparable to what rescuers could find in the wild, said Wimmer.

"A lot of people will panic and just sort of grab the animal and try to put it back on the water. And that can be very dangerous," she said.

"This training really was about teaching people how we know what to do for the animals. How do we know if they're healthy or not? And what do we actually do? How do you move a two-tonne animal?"

'Practice makes perfect'

About 20 people participated in the session, including some from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Parks Canada and the Atlantic Veterinary College.

"Practice makes perfect," said Matthew MacEwen, a conservation protection supervisor for Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

"It was nice to actually have some hands-on training."

MacEwen has had training in the past and knows first-hand how crucial it is.He has responded to a number of situations where marine animals found themselves in trouble, including a minkewhale stranded in St. Nicholas, P.E.I., and similar cases involving pilot whales and dolphins.

In the Gulf region last year, MacEwen said fishery officers responded to roughly 30 strandings.

"Every situation is definitely different," he said. "Normally it's quite chaotic. But our fishery officers are amazing."

'A lot more confident'

Wildlife pathologist Laura Bourqueis with the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative at the Atlantic Veterinary College and took part in the training as well. She investigates the cause of death when marine mammals are found dead or dying in the Maritimes.

"We learned a little bit about their health assessment when they're found stranded on land, what to do and what not to do," she said.

"And we learned about how to refloat them and get them back out to the sea so they're happy."

Bourque estimates she has dealt with hundreds of dead marine animals during her career. Only a handful were still alive when she got to the scene, and she said this training will help prepare her for the next time that happens.

"You need to have the experience and you need to know what not to do so that you don't end up hurting the animals in the moment," she said.

"I will certainly feel a lot more confident in my ability to deal with live stranded whales and dolphins, and I hope to practise that in the future if an event happens that I have to help out with."