Stranded

Stranded

The stormy morning of the 31 of May 2009 changed the lives of many people in the small coastal town of Kommetjie in Cape Town, South Africa. To the horror of the residents the sandy beach was the scene of a massive stranding of 55 False Killer Whale (Pseudorca crassidens).

During the early hours the majority of the animals were still alive and slowly being suffocated by their own weight. The public responded swiftly to return the whales back to the sea, as time passed more people gathered to help in a bitterly cold morning, many of them suffering hypothermia and risking their own lives.

The improvised operation lasted the entire day, but by the afternoon it was clear that no matter how much human effort was dedicated to the rescue, those rescued returned back to the beach to be stranded again. The final decision by the authorities was to euthanize the whole group of whales, to spare them suffering a painful death.

Stranding is a documentary that follows this dramatic event and it is a closer view of why large numbers of whales sometimes perishes along the coasts of the world. The documentary explores the possible explanations of such behavior as well as how best to manage a similar situation in the future.