December 23 – “Whale aground”

We had more than our share of excitement in Galveston yesterday.  A 45 foot long Sei Whale (in the Blue Whale family) beached itself on the shore of the island.  It was discovered by an early morning jogger who thought it was a log at first.  Then he saw the tail and a fin rise from the water. 

The fact that it was only about 30 yards from shore meant that it was probably already really sick.  One of the young ladies from Seaside, Lauren, is a member of the Texas sea mammal rescue group, so she was right in the thick of things as they tried to orchestrate a rescue attempt.  All their efforts proved to be to no avail, however.  The whale died around noon.  The word I heard was that it drowned.  I know that sounds strange, but the whale is a mammal, after all. 

After the death the arduous process began of hauling the body onto the shore so that the whale version of an autopsy could be performed.  Lauren helped with that effort as well.  She was one of the three ladies who fought the waves to get a tow strap around the whale’s tail, so that it in turn could be dragged from the water by huge construction machinery.  And that was no easy task.  The chain broke twice as they struggled to get the creature to shore.  They were ultimately successful, however.  Police officers were then assigned to guard the carcass overnight to protect it for the autopsy today.  After that is performed, I read that plans are to bury it on the beach right there where it was found.

Hundreds of people were there to see the very rare phenomenon, especially for Galveston.  Lauren told us that she has been working with mammal rescue for fifteen years, and she has only seen five whales along the Texas coast.  There were cameras with massive zoom lenses and simple cell phone cameras joining the television news crews – all recording the event for posterity.  Some videos and stills would fall into family archives.  Others would grace the airways through TV news or FaceBook.

Many were very sad to find that the whale finally died, even grieving.  Others reacted … well … differently, though.  For instance, a couple of guys walked past us and spoke Spanish to the fellow next to me.  He laughed heartily.  And as they walked away he translated, “They said they just came down here for their share of the free whale taco meat.”  One FaceBook post I read listed whale tacos, whale steaks, whale burgers, whale stew, whale sausage … and on and on and on.  Another mentioned switching the island to whale blubber fuel for a month or so.  I have to admit, the joking around was pretty funny.  That’s how many people handle death in any form.  The creature itself, however, was amazing.  I for one have never seen a whale up close.  Never even been on one of those Alaska cruises where you watch them play.  It was a massive, actually quite beautiful creature, even at its death.  A real display of the awesomeness of its Creator.

Ps 148:7-12 says, “Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds, kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth, young men and maidens, old men and children.”

Father, you continue to prove how utterly awesome you are.  Please bless Lauren and her team for their hard work yesterday.  Amen.