The Rescue of Toa

Toa, as the six-month-old orca would later be named, was living the life of any young whale’s dreams, leaping in and out of the surf as he followed two older members of his family along the coast near Wellington, New Zealand.

Sixteen-year-old Ben Norris and his friends Flora Smith and Sean Carter had spotted the family and were racing down to the beach on their bikes for a closer look. But excitement and pleasure quickly turned to shock and trauma as they witnessed what happened on the rocky shore: As the adult whales turned away toward deeper water, the youngster didn’t follow. Instead, as he kept heading toward the beach, a wave threw him onto the rocks, where he landed on his back, screaming.

Toa stranded on the rocks. Photo by Ben Norris

As Ben described what happened: “He was on his back, and then he was on the beach, wiggling his tail which was driving him further and further up. The rocks were cutting him up and the sound was like nothing you can imagine. His screams were hurting my ears.”

While Flora and Sean raced home to Hongoeka, a Ngāti Toa (Maori) suburb of the town of Plimmerton, Ben got in the freezing winter water to stay with the young whale and try to reassure him. Ben had been learning about orcas as part of a school research project and had recently watched the documentary movie Blackfish about captive orcas at entertainment parks. He said he could see another whale, who must have been the injured calf’s mother, waiting offshore, calling to him, but unable to do more. And by the time Flora and Sean returned with police, fire fighters and Ngāti Toa tribal members – for whom orca are viewed as their ancestors – Toa’s mother and other members of his family were moving further offshore.

The crew of first-time rescuers did everything they could to refloat Toa. “He needed to find his balance and equilibrium,” Flora said, “but we didn’t have enough time to do that because the water was pushing him back on the rocks.”

But expert help was on the way as Ingrid Visser, founder of the Orca Research Trust (and advisor to the Whale Sanctuary Project), flew down from Whāngārei, arriving by evening to help shepherd the calf to a sea pen in Wellington Harbour.

Ingrid Visser, center, with Toa. Photo by Mark Mitchell.

Over the next ten days, hundreds of people worked together to care for Toa, whose name means “brave and strong.” Along with the veterinarians who were treating him and monitoring his condition, the whale was cared for by groups of volunteers working in shifts, with at least four people in the water at any given time. While helping to keep him moving, they needed to make sure he wouldn’t bump into the wall or the net and hurt his back, which had seized up when he was caught on the rocks. Another pair of observers, sitting behind a windbreak out of the water, kept count of the number of times per minute that Toa came up to breathe.

Ben Norris, by Brianna Norris.

Other volunteers from all walks of life became part of the effort, including clothing suppliers and restaurant owners to help keep the team warm, dry, fed and provisioned through winter storms.

One of these remarkable contributions came from the Weta Workshop, a group that’s well known in New Zealand for the amazing props they created in the making of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy of movies. When they heard that Toa needed to be bottle-fed without becoming bonded with humans, they set up their 3-D printer to create a simulation of a mother whale’s teat that the crew could use to feed the calf.

Other experts from far and wide included our own Jeff Foster, the Whale Sanctuary Project’s experienced Animal Transfer & Rehab Coordinator, who was in touch with Ingrid and the rescue team round the clock on matters from bottle-feeding to medicating to drawing blood to developing bonds of trust, and, if all went well and Toa’s family could be located, to the challenge of returning him to them.

“In the end, Tangaroa had his way with him.”For the first few days in his sea pen at Wellington Harbour, Toa made progress: eating and swimming and even becoming quite feisty. When a winter storm approached, threatening both the whale and his caregivers, he was moved to a saltwater pool until the storm passed. But then, back in his sea pen, he began to take a turn for the worse, becoming seriously lethargic, and despite all the efforts of the veterinarians, he died on Friday evening, July 23rd.

“In the end, Tangaroa had his way with him,” said Hongoeka member Justin Stretch, referring to the great atua of the sea, lakes, rivers, and creatures who live within them.

Local observer Tony Sutorius wrote:

“When Toa went quite suddenly downhill, Ingrid did a beautiful thing. Everyone who had been closely involved in his care was quietly called down to the water’s edge, and those dozen or so [whom] Toa knew best went into the water and held him upright and comforted him, very silently, for the last hour of his life, which ended very gently.

It was a rarely still and beautiful cold evening, under a full moon. When he died, several karakia were sung and a few spoke briefly. It was a sad, very lovely time of aroha and pure community.”

And so, even though little Toa lost his struggle to survive, the effort was far from being in vain. Jeff, who has participated in numerous marine mammal rescue efforts all over the world, notes that he and other rescuers and veterinarians always learn a great deal, regardless of the outcome. Every lesson learned is carried forward to the next effort and is now also helping to build our Whale Aid program and its worldwide network of expertise and commitment that’s writing a new chapter for whales and dolphins, both captive and free ranging.

Orca mothers have deep and lasting emotional bonds with their children, and our thoughts are with Toa’s mother as she grieves his loss. Our thoughts are also with everyone who worked so hard to save Toa’s life and return him to his family – and perhaps especially with those three teenagers, without whom there would have been no rescue effort in the first place. May they lead the way for the new generation of animal rescue and protection.