Operation Breakthrough
| Point Barrow | ||
| Geographical location | ||
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| Coordinates | 71 ° 23 '20 " N , 156 ° 28' 45" W | |
| Waters 1 | Chukchi Sea | |
| Waters 2 | Beaufortsee | |
Operation Breakthrough was an international bailout to free a trapped in pack ice Grauwalfamilie in 1988. The three whales were in October in the Beaufort Sea north of Point Barrow , the US state of Alaska , the northernmost city of the United Statessurprised by the early winter and could no longer reach the open sea on their own. This led to worldwide media coverage and ensured that several states and international aid organizations participated in the rescue efforts. The youngest whale died during the rescue operation. The presumed parent animals were rescued, but it has not been established whether they ultimately survived the hardships.
Rescue efforts
On October 7, 1988 , Iñupiat Roy Ahmaogak , a hunter and whaler, discovered three gray whales in the pack ice of the Beaufort Sea north of Point Barrow . The hunter tried to cut an ice-free swath with a chainsaw in order to create a path for the animals to the open sea.
Other villagers helped the hunter with pumps and other devices to keep the open areas free of ice, especially at night.
Word of local help spread quickly in the Iñupiat communities, so biologists from North Slope Borough found out about it and headed there. On site they recognized the dangerous situation for the whale family and organized a Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane heavy-lift helicopter, which was supposed to punch holes in the ice with a 5-ton hammer.
A week later, the first reports of the trapped whales hit Anchorage . Rescue workers attempted to haul a barge from Utqiaġvik, about 270 miles away from Prudhoe Bay , to use it like an icebreaker and break a swath into the pack ice. The operation failed because the barge itself got stuck. Meanwhile, more and more media reported of the plight of the three gray whales and other journalists arrived in the North Slope Borough and reported on site. The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) dispatched a team of marine biologists and whale specialists, and the US State Department asked the government of the Soviet Union for assistance regarding the possible use of two icebreakers .
Soviet icebreakers Vladimir Arseniev and Admiral Makarov rushed to the rescue.
When the whales looked for a suitable escape route, they got the swarming media people to swim back. The sharp-edged ice that was destroyed during the rescue attempts cut the animals and colored the sea water with their blood. During the time when the three whales were gathering around the breathing holes, the members of the Iñupiat community named them: Putu (Bonnet), Siku (Crossbeak), and Kanik (Bone). The youngest whale Kanik (Bone), around nine months old, died on October 21.
On October 28, Admiral Makarov began to break a gully 400 yards wide and 30 feet deep through the Arctic ice. The Vladimir Arseniev cleared the channel from the ice debris and created an escape route that should theoretically be sufficient. After the path was cleared and cleared, the observers could not make out either of the two older whales and assumed that the rescue operation had been successful. However, the animals were already in a seriously poor state of health, and since no transmitters or markings were attached to any of them, it could never be conclusively determined whether the animals had survived the grueling rescue efforts.
The cost of the bailout amounted to 1 million US dollars and have been criticized by scientists.
Retrospective
A walkundler referred to the effect of the joint efforts to save the animals as a catalyst for people to rethink their behavior towards animals. Although the operation, at great expense, ultimately reversed a natural process, acting together changed people's attitudes towards whales.
See also
- The Call of the Whales , a 2012 film starring Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski, tells the story of this rescue operation.
literature
- Tom Rose: Freeing the Whales: How the Media Created the World's Greatest Non-Event . Carol Publishing Corporation, 1989, ISBN 978-1-55972-011-3 .
Web links
- Unlikely Allies Rush to Free 3 Whales at The New York Times
- The movie, Big Miracle, and what I witnessed in real life, part 1: Context - bowhead hunt . Retrieved November 11, 2012.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Dick Russell: Breakthrough Across Troubled Waters . In: Eye of the Whale: Epic Passage From Baja To Siberia . Island Press, 2004, ISBN 978-1-55963-088-7 , pp. 463-477. (English)
- ^ A b c d Robert Sullivan: A Whale Hunt: How a Native-American Village Did What No One Thought It Could . Scribner, 2002, ISBN 978-0-684-86434-1 , pp. 79-80. (English)
- ^ Robert H. Busch: Gray Whales, Wandering Giants . Orca Book Publishers, 1998, ISBN 978-1-55143-114-7 , p. 112. (English)
- ↑ a b Environment: Free At Last! Bon Voyage! . In: Time , November 7, 1988. (English)
- ↑ Richard Mauer: The real story behind 'Big Miracle' . In: The Anchorage Daily News , February 3, 2012. Accessed 2/4/2012. (English)
- ↑ Ulrich Brunner : Mittagsjournal from October 29, 1988. Guest in the journal: The marine biologist Dr. Katzmann, lecturer in environmental education. In: www.journale.at. Austrian Media Library , October 28, 1988, accessed April 21, 2016 .