Rescuers have failed to free a humpback whale that washed up on a beach over the weekend, and biologists said on Tuesday its chances of survival are slim.
More than 100 people still struggled to get the 10-ton whale off Jurujuba beach just across Rio de Janeiro at the entrance to Guanabara Bay and back into the ocean.
But biologists said the whale’s body temperature was rising, threatening to shut down its vital organs.
Rescuers planned to try to pull the whale off the beach with two tugboats and a net at high tide. Efforts to get the whale back to sea with the help of a motor boat failed on Sunday, and a tugboat sent by the Brazilian oil company Petrobas couldn’t move the whale on Monday.
Biologists said the whale is a young male measuring about 10m. Bernadete Fragosa, a biologist at Rio de Janeiro’s State University, said it does not appear to be injured and probably got tired during its long swim to breeding grounds.
Humpback whales live in the waters around the Antarctic and swim up the South American coast to breed in the warmer waters around Bahia state, about 1 125km north of Rio, she said. — Sapa-AP