SANTA MARIANITA (ECUADOR)- Over 100 volunteers did their best in saving a 9 meter long whale shark that washed up on a beach off the town of Santa Marianita. Their effort unfortunately was too late.
The female whale shark became stranded on the beach after being caught in the shallow waters as the tide went out. The shark was spotted by local fishermen on Monday morning and within a few hours dozens of volunteers including police, fishermen and tourists arrived to help pull it back into the sea using ropes.
Rescue boats were trying to pull the whale shark to sea and bobcats tried to push the animal back into the ocean, but it was simply too heavy.
The shark measured around an estimated 9 metres long and 16 tonnes in weight,.
After six hours of rescue attempts the whale shark eventually died. See the photos on Tanya Layman’s Facebook
Mission Whale Shark Rescue (April 13th, 2015)
Posted by Tanya Layman on maandag 13 april 2015