Project Jonah

Today we had Darren and Louise from Project Jonah in to teach us about marine mammals. Project Jonah is a charity organisation who is called in to save stranded whales. In fact, Darren had a phone call about whales who were in danger to be stranded at Golden Beach, while Louise were doing her presentation. They are also involved in educating communities about marine mammals.

Room 4 has been learning about whales this week. We decided to join Room 17 who initiated this topic, because environmental education is so important  and relevant to all New Zealanders.

The following advice were given:

• Call 0800 DOC HOT , or 0800 4 WHALES, when stranded whales are spotted.
• Keep the whale wet by slowly pouring water on it's skin. Keep the skin shiny.
• Wrap a wet blanket over its body, taking care to keep the dorsal fin uncovered. They also gave us an example of what not to do by covering the dorsal fin in the photo below.
• Mammals breath air, so we should NOT pour water down its blow hole.
• Keep calm around the animal, using low voices. Small children or inquisitive dogs must be kept at a distance to keep the stranded animal calm, as it may stop breathing when anxious.
• Stay away from the tail.
• The tide comes in every twelve hours, so be prepared to look after the animal for a while.

Thank you Darren and Louis. We certainly learnt a lot and we are now confident that we'll be able to help stranded mammals.