Whale tale: DFO uses fake whale for Nanaimo rescue drill
NANAIMO — A blow-up whale may have looked like the real thing at Departure Bay Beach but it was only a drill testing new rescue equipment.
Roughly a dozen officers with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans stablized and released the fake whale during a 45-minute drill Tuesday morning on the popular beach. They used new advanced rescue equipment which had arrived over the past six months.
Paul Cottrell, regional coordinator for marine mammal rescue with the department, told NanaimoNewsNOW the equipment means rescuers can act faster and save larger whales.
“In a year we get anywhere from five-to-10 live stranded cetaceans that we respond to,” Cotrell said. “Often mammals die but of course this equipment is going to help us and hopefully make sure that more mammals survive.”