DUNGENESS — A second day of efforts to free a male killer whale stranded in Dungeness Bay passed without much success Thursday while other scientists began a necropsy on a female whale.
Crews planned to work through the night to keep the 10,000-pound male orca wet and calm, National Marine Fisheries Service spokesman Brian Gorman said Thursday.
Rescuers, including volunteers from the Keiko Project, intend to change their strategy to persuade the whale out of the bay today.
“We’re going to have to make a new assessment of where we stand,” Gorman said.
A harness system was used at least six times Thursday and once Wednesday in attempts to pull the 20-year-old whale out of the shallow bay.
Each time the whale broke free and proceeded to beach itself along Dungeness Spit, Gorman said.
A final attempt to move the whale Thursday ended at 4:30 p.m.
With darkness setting in, crews used an oyster-harvesting barge as a platform to tend to the whale overnight.
Meanwhile, tissue samples taken during a necropsy on the dead female Thursday are on their way to a lab to be analyzed. Preliminary results could be available within a week, Gorman said.
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