UPDATE: The killer whale died just before midnight.
A killer whale stranded on a beach in the Netherlands on Saturday. “The situation is worrying,” animal welfare organization SOS Dolfijn said. The water is receding, and an earlier attempt to save the killer whale failed.
SOS Dolfijn received reports around 3.30 pm that a live killer whale, also known as an orca, was lying on the beach near Cadzand.
Members of the Dutch rescue company KNMR managed to get the orca with his snout towards the sea. The animal seemed to have swum away, but she was back on the beach an hour later.
Since then, attempts have been made to help the 5.5-meter-long animal, but rescuers are concerned about her chances of survival. Rescuers said the animal looked too weakened to swim away.
SOS Dolfijn told Dutch media that “it’s not a good sign” that the killer whale stranded again.
It is rare for an orca to wash up on the Dutch coast. The last time was in 2010: orca Morgan was taken out of the Wadden Sea in a weakened condition and taken to animal park Dolphinarium in Harderwijk.
After a year, Morgan was transferred to the animal park Loro Parque in Tenerife. In 2021, Dutch media reported that Morgan was used to perform in shows at the park.
