Aloha Good People.... Many may have seen the report on this evenings news... here are a couple of photos from the site where many of the agencies involved in taking this young humpback off the reef and brought to Dr. Kristi... ( she sure had a busy busy day).
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Team Billand ready to get to work
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Robert assisting William Aila from the DLNR
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preparing the vehicle for the ride from the west side to the east side.
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It began at 6:30am, searching KoOlina for Pohaku, nope, not any where in KoOlina after half hour of going from Lagoon to Lagoon.
Ok, on to White Plains where Makaiwi was up shore, we did the ropes and signs, while doing that, here comes RIP. He passed her, looked on his toes, high in the air, then moved on to 1707 cabins.
Later we watched M and M R020 foraging off shore at 1705 Nimitz. But a call from Cianna of another seal, at Tracks came in, so we left site, asked folks if seal came in to call us.
What happened next? We missed finding R018 at Tracks, Cianna found him. OOpps...
Well, another call from CIANNA saying...A dead whale behind Waianae High School per Ed Lyman. So we took off immediately to the site. We just parked at Waianae Boat Harbor, walked around to the high school. There was the carcass..I could see it from a far with an HPD officer and DNLR guy, DAVID KEAWE.
We ran over to see...a poor dead Calf..it was a humpback!!! Oh my gosh, how sad. It seemed to just be sleeping on the reef, swells gently covering its body to keep it in good condition for a necropsy. I made many a phone call, especially to Cianna...thanks girl for being so patient with me. I was just very excited and sad over the death of our beloved whale.
We talked to Officer Keawe..we knew HPU was supposed to come. They never made it. But Willima Aila..THE HERO OF THE DAY DID.
We talked about the strategy of recovering the carcass. The terrain was very rough, hard for a vehicle to get there. We talked about a simple solution...Get a boat, some strong rope and tie the head, the tail of the whale, then drag it out to the ocean and to the boat harbor. We felt, that would be easiest as the reef wasnt that far to get the whale off. And thats just what we did.
William went home to get ropes,couldnt get the truck, but he also got the Lifeguards to help with Jet Skis.
William came back, he and his son, sorry forgot his name...and Robert got the ropes, and two O O's to lift the head up, tied the head. Next they tied the belly..they were lucky, the part of the belly had enough space to get the rope under the belly as it sat in a pond. They then tied the fluke up.
Ok, now we wait for the boats arrival. It was awesome to see the boat, DOLPHIN EXCURSIONS and the jet skis arriving with the lifeguards.
The ropes were tossed to the lifeguards, the lifeguards tossed the ropes to the boat...we waited for the swells to come in to float the whale a bit...it worked so well, Life guards timed every thing. NOW...pull!!!!
Off went the poor Humpback calf...off went the boat dragging its carcass. We cheered!!!!! It was fantastic. Remember this whole ordeal began at 11am. Whale pulled off reef by 2:30pm.
Ok now the carcass is in the harbor, but a 12 foot tiger shark was following the whales scent. The jet skis made the shark disappear..wow, cool.
Mr Aila got in the water, tied more ropes to the whales carcass, we then waited for the trailer, Officer Keawe went to town to get. He arrives, everyone helped to get the carcass on the trailer,Mr Aila my hero...never stopped to do anything..neither did the son and Robert.
NOAA arrives...they went to get tarps to cover the whale at City Mill.
Oh and the Harbor Master who we know got into it with us also. He was so cool getting the ply wood.
Jeff walters helped with the tarp and strapping down the whale carcass to the trailer..
Dera and Dana there as well with other ties for the whale, and Jim Brown did outreach.
4pm Mr Keawe came with this huge trailer...YIPPEE. He was great. There since the beginning and assisted pulling the carcass and tying staps.
4:20pm The whale was on its way to HPU...Hugs to all who helped, A BIG THANKS TO WILLIAM AILA, ROBERT BILLAND and WILLIAMS SON!!!! Three men who worked together in harmony...just awesome.
And our whale carcass off to HPU..god bless that poor baby...we felt for it...bless his soul..
Oh and no one called the news guys, they suddenly showed up...they heard it on...the scanner.
Oh and I want to thank all the other volunteers called out as we were too tired to go back to retrieve our signs and ropes at Plains.
Thank you Dana for getting those volunteers..hugs to you folks...and Allan, for taking all the ropes away after Makaiwi left and Rip as well.
Cianna for finding...R018...for being so patient with me on the phones and getting my messages to Dera.
To Robert...you will always be...MY HERO.
To all the folks who some how found out about the dead whale, thanks for being respectful and staying away from the whales carcass. Hope we educated you all in a way to understand the entire ordeal.
Working with William Aila and Son....Priceless. He is a very calm, nice man. Smart..he got the ball going. THANKS WILLIAM AILA AND SON.
TO OFFICER KEAWE...you were sensational to get the trailer!!!!! You are so appreciated. And to the other officer...thanks.
YES, I AM STILL SO VERY EXCITED...hey, its a humpback whale calf, he touched my soul...I wish he had a better outcome...truly a sad thing to witness...but we all did what we thought was RIGHT...team work...works.
Wow Barbara! You guys are amazing!!!!!!! It truly is phenomenal how you guys pulled that whole mission together.. Thank you all for everything you do out there on a daily basis. Just another day in the life of the Billians ! :)
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