© Associated Press
Two healthy pilot whales are loaded onto a boat in Cudjoe Key to be released at sea.
Two healthy pilot whales are loaded onto a boat in Cudjoe Key to be released at sea.
There was a moment of joy for the tireless marine mammal rescuers working to save a pod of stranded pilot wales Saturday evening in the Keys: two of the seven surviving whales were deemed healthy and released in deep waters nine miles offshore.
Cheers erupted on the barge carrying the whales when the two adult males met in open water, touched each other, and then swam away together.
The whales, each over 12 feet long and more than 1,000 pounds, were first fitted with trackers that should last between 2-3 months.
The pair were part of a pod of 20 pilot whales who inexplicably beached themselves Thursday near Cudjoe Key, about 20 miles east of Key West.
Thirteen of them have died, and the surviving seven have been cared for in a makeshift waist-deep pen, where volunteers continue to cover the whales' exposed bodies in zinc and sheets to protect their sensitive skin from the sun.
Comment: Bad 'science', fear mongering and global warming propaganda to divert attention from the real causes of change - and of course to prompt the public into beliefs and actions that benefit no one but those seeking to make profit from it. For an objective view of the changing reality here on the Big Blue Marble see: Connecting the Dots: Earth Changes Are Upon Us