Baby Whale - Still Searching for Mum

'Baby whale nuzzles Javelin beside Blackwattle' .

Mother talk to me - .. .

'The Basin' is normally a placid anchorage in Sydney's deeply sheltered Broken Bay - small ferries putt-putting, ducks feeding, seagulls, a pelican or two. But this morning the air is tense and the noise of engines is all pervading.

Sydney's motherless baby whale, which was led out to sea a couple of days ago, has sadly come back into protected waters looking for Mum, and found herself in the comparatively shallow waters of 'The Basin'..

Little does she know it, but she is followed by a horde. There are several boats from the National Parks and Wildlife Service(NPWS) patrolling, and 'stranding experts' from ORRCA the volunteer rescue and research organisation for cetaceans. More volunteers are arriving, I am told, and the NPWS has called in

Baby whale swims under Bonny Doon wharf in the Basin - photo by Nick Moir, SMH - .. .

'whale experts'. The NPWS is warning any entering boats to stay away, and eventually even the ferry is prevented from reaching the Bonny Doon wharf nearest the calf.

Then the press starts to arrive - by water taxi, by chartered yacht, by ferry, even by the 5 kilometre walk through National Park - there's no public road to this bay. Helicopters hover noisily overhead - three of them, no doubt from opposing channels. When not filming the whale, circling in the shallow water, they film each other and if they can't find an 'expert', interview each other too.

The baby whale, oblivious, is deep into the Bay and is nuzzling a yacht on a temporary mooring. She sidles up and bumps the yacht continually, displaying, I am told, typical whale nuzzling behaviour. The owner appears on deck, and uses his mobile

ORRCA volunteer Shona Lorigan - ’on the spot’ monitoring. - .. .

phone a lot before motoring out of the bay. Deprived of the latest prospect for a feed, the baby floats on the surface for a while, and the photographers lunge for their cameras.

Apparently searching for a new mother, the whale now swims under Bonny Doon Wharf, much to the delight of the gathered local residents, who hale from houses buried in the bushland above
.
'I had tears in my eyes watching her,' said local resident Louise Brogan. 'She is so little, and we feel so helpless.'
The whale now finds another, yacht, Javelin, owned by the Brogans, and we watch as she moves the yacht round on its moorings trying to get a response.

'The prognosis is not good,' says Shona Lorigan, a volunteer with ORRCA. 'She has been days now without nourishment. We can't do anything but monitor her behaviour, try to keep the public away, but we are all trained for stranding, and will be there to help if she strands herself.'

'We estimate that she is between one and two months old, and we can tell by her behaviour that she is weakening. We just want to avoid as much stress for her as possible.'

When I ask her for the prognosis, however, she merely looks sad and shakes her head.

Soon our own yacht Blackwattle, is hemmed by the exclusion zone, and the baby calf, about the size of a pilot whale, nuzzles fruitlessly at the yacht next to us.

The story is not ended, but it's more and more doubtful that it will be a happy one.

by Nancy Knudsen