coming up next on Jonathan Birds blue
world a stranded pilot whale is rescued
in the Caribbean hi I'm Jonathan bird
and welcome to my world
the ocean is full of fascinating animals
and stories I love to investigate and
film these stories and sometimes I get
lucky on a recent expedition I learned
about an amazing story of survival and
that story involves a 10-foot long pilot
whale that was stranded here on the
Caribbean island of Curacao the pilot
whales name is Sully and his story began
in July of 2009 when he's stranded on a
carasau beach but he was incredibly
lucky to land there since it's home to
the Curacao Sea Aquarium one of the few
places in the entire Caribbean with the
facilities and expertise to care for him
George Keefer the president of the
Southern Caribbean cetacean Network was
quick to respond when he got a telephone
call alerting him to the stranded pilot
whale on a beach only 10 minutes from
his office I could tell right away he
was a pilot whale but didn't know if it
was a male or female but Wow what it was
a it was a skeleton I mean it was as
emaciated as a whale or dolphin could
possibly be and still be swimming I mean
its skin and bones he had swam right out
of the bay and then could come back in
the bay again so I don't think he was
disoriented I think it was one of those
situations where you know this animal is
physically incapable of keeping himself
at the surface so I think a lot of times
these animals will strand because they
just don't want it to out you know and
if they can support themselves in some
way in the shallows that's what they're
looking to do the sea aquarium staff
immediately sprung into action because
Sully was too weak to stay afloat on his
own they used foam pool floats to help
support his weight and lots of human
helpers
next they needed to get some fluids into
him because he was so dehydrated using a
funnel attached to a plastic tube in his
mouth they poured fresh water right into
his system
although Sully lives in the sea and is
surrounded by water he can't drink any
of it because it's salty he gets all his
fresh water in the fish and squid he
normally eats if he hasn't been eating
he hasn't been drinking either without
lots of water fast
his kidneys would fail
once Sully was hydrated George decided
to see if he would eat anything the
dolphins at the Sea Aquarium like
herring so George brought over a bucket
of herring to try on Sully he wasn't
sure if the whale would accept food from
him
but Sully was hungry and he gulped down
the fish from George
he got so excited that they had a hard
time keeping a hold on him
soon they set up a makeshift pen mostly
to keep Sully safe from boats and
curious swimmers Sully had become a
celebrity and the crowd started
gathering volunteers took turns not just
helping to keep him afloat but making
sure he was safe within only a few days
Sully gained a lot of strength and
looked like he was ready to swim by
himself
the floatation devices were removed one
at a time and Sully swam on his own up
until that point the volunteers had been
calling him the whale George decided the
pilot whale needed a name I started
calling him Sully as a nickname I
thought yeah he should be calling him
something other than the whale so I
thought well okay pilot whale who's a
famous pilot then I thought of the pilot
who landed his plane in the Hudson and
kept all 155 people alive after falling
out of the sky with no engines I thought
that's pretty cool Sully within a few
weeks Sully was strong enough that he
was getting rambunctious George felt he
needed to get some exercise so they
trained him to follow a boat they
started by feeding him fish from the
boat inside his pen
once he was used to following the boat
around for food inside the pen they took
him just outside the pen and continued
the training
Sully learned very quickly and within a
few days he would follow the boat way
offshore at high speed this daily
exercise helped him get his strength
back so he could return to the wild
by the time I arrived on the island
three months later Sully was back to
full strength he was being fed lots of
fish several times a day and every day
or so Jorge would give Sully a rubdown
to get the dead skin off
Sully really enjoyed that
George would lie out on a board
suspended above the water and Sully
would come right over this is the only
time we touch him and that's the rub off
all that loose skin but nobody ever went
in the water with the whale because they
didn't want to acclimate him to humans
if he became too friendly towards people
they might never get him to go back to
his own kind
he might just start hanging around the
beach looking for people to play with
but one question that constantly
lingered in George's mind was why did
Sully strand in the first place what was
wrong with Sully
and was he better now
I joined George one morning as he took
Sully out for his daily exercise swim
he seemed completely rehabilitated Solly
could keep up with the boat easily
George decided Sully was strong enough
to go back to the wild so we took him
straight out to sea and you know we
three well once we get out there we'll
just sort of toss a few fish away from
the boat and we'll leave him and we did
that you know it took us about an hour
offshore we figured we're at least ten
miles out there
well okay too deep open-water this is
their habitat hopefully he'll come
across some pilot whales and head it on
back so we're coming back at full speed
and that boat I'm estimating you're
talking about you know 30 miles an hour
so maybe 45 km/h we're moving and so as
we're we're heading back towards the
island a few minutes later one of the
crew on the boat there's two other
trainers with me Naomi and junior Naomi
says I think I see him back there what
they discovered is just how fast
Sully can swim even at full throttle
they couldn't lose him and he followed
the boat all the way back to his pen why
wouldn't he go back to the wild
maybe he didn't want to be alone so
George decided the only way they would
ever get Sully back to the wild would be
to hook him up with a pod of pilot
whales for weeks every fisherman on the
island and even the Coast Guard were
keeping an eye out for a pod of pilot
whales for Sully soon they found a pod
George and the sea aquarium staff led
Sully out to the pod to make an
introduction buddy go
unfortunately Sully had no interest he
looked at the pod and swam right back to
the boat once again he followed them
straight back to his pen clearly Sully
had no intention of going back to the
wild but nobody knew why unfortunately
Sully couldn't stay in his pen first of
all it was designed to be temporary and
the volunteers couldn't watch him
forever
and he was eating 60 to 70 pounds of
fish every day the sea aquarium couldn't
afford to keep feeding him they had to
find another facility to take care of
Sully someplace with the space and
resources to handle a hungry pilot whale
fortunately SeaWorld in San Diego
offered Sully a permanent home soon
George and his staff were preparing
Sully for his first airplane ride using
a sling they loaded Sully onto a truck
carrying a custom-made tank that would
keep Sully in the water for his entire
journey over 3,000 miles
soon the truck departed from the Kara
South Sea aquarium for the airport
sally was loaded onto a FedEx jet for
his $100,000 private charter directly to
San Diego Jorge and several volunteers
went along to help out during the flight
they took turns pouring water onto Sully
to keep him cool and relaxed at 30,000
feet
six hours later Sully arrived in San
Diego where they took him straight to
SeaWorld
George was there too and helped get
Sully acquainted with his new home soon
he was swimming around none the worse
for wear
in an effort to learn why Sully stranded
the hub SeaWorld Marine Institute got
together with the US Navy Marine Mammal
program to test his hearing using
sophisticated gear they found the
answers
Sully can't hear above 10 kilohertz a
normal pilot whale should be able to
hear up to at least 100 kilohertz
so basically Sully is hard-of-hearing
and without being able to hear those
really high frequencies he can't hunt
using his echolocation in the deep ocean
without being able to catch anything to
eat Sully was slowly starving to death
since Sully's life depends on being fed
he can never go back to the wild it's a
good thing SeaWorld volunteered to take
care of him I head out to San Diego to
visit my buddy Sully and as soon as I
see the Shamu mobile I know I'm in the
right place SeaWorld is known for their
incredible dolphin and whale programs
that bring thousands of people to
appreciate life in the oceans
but what many people don't realize is
that SeaWorld also has a huge
rehabilitation program for stranded
animals I catch up with Sully in one of
the rehab tanks far from the crowds out
front
he smiles for my camera I wonder if he
remembers me we've been following his
story
nobody sort of the completion of his
story to be here soon I'm introduced to
Jennifer Shore knee one of Sully's
trainers oh we all love Zoey in a
special place in every big bulk of his
face right now is squid but he's also
getting some herring he's learning to
eat people in as well as sardines so
he's eating all different types of fish
you are see this absolutely Wow
so what do i do just a couple fish yeah
just take a couple fish journey toss
them right on in all right perfect
oh here we go he's not particular about
which way on her back
and you'll see him sometimes when he's
rearranging the food he'll definitely
push out all the water but he gobbled
those down real quick so 65 pounds a day
yes you're doing this a lot a lot this
is what we have many times a day work
we're gonna be stepping down numerous
numerous times throughout the day to him
squared oh yeah look at him he's like
this great I went this way all right
here comes
Oh Sully you're so good perfect
Sully favorite time of the day and it
stinks he absolutely loves he loves to
be rubbed down so we're gonna call it
the line of love he loves it and what
we'll do is we're gonna line ourselves
up back there and you'll know see him
it's almost like a car wash he'll go
back and forth and back and forth and
just absolutely love it I get the chance
to join in on the line of love and give
Sully a little run Sully has put on over
200 pounds since arriving at SeaWorld
he's a growing whale eating 65 pounds of
fish and squid every day
as you can tell it's a pretty happy guy
well how could you not I know right he's
got three ladies giving him a rug soon
it's playtime to keep Sully
intellectually stimulated his trainers
give him a rotating selection of toys to
play with this one's his favorite they
call it the sausage links
he likes to grab it in his mouth and
pull it under water which takes quite a
bit of force I know right buoyancy on
that day I must have fifty pounds it's
amazing and it looks so easy for him
doesn't it he also likes his beach hat
there you go
he loves to collect his toys and bring
them all together he's like this would
be easier I know right but he doesn't
stop he really is quite animated there
you go like the last one yeah there we
there we go now we're moving now we got
it so with his hearing damaged Sully
just can't go back to the wild and how
lucky is he that all the way from
carousel he made it to SeaWorld in San
Diego probably the best place in the
world for him and he's going to be taken
care of for the rest of his life and get
rubbed downs one day Sully will probably
perform at SeaWorld and anyone will be
able to go and meet him
big smile
Sully owes his life to the people who
vowed to save him the staff of SeaWorld
San Diego and the Curacao Sea Aquarium
to these people this isn't just some
stranded whale he's Sully the determins
pilot whale who like his namesake
refused to give up even in the face of
overwhelming odds