DATELINE: 13th August 2001

THERE SHE BLOWS
Marine vets were forced to use explosives to put down a humpback whale that beached on a South African beach.
The 10m whale beached near Port Elizabeth and, after attempts to tow it off failed, the decision was taken to put it out of its misery.
A spokeswoman from Port Elizabeth's Bayworld oceanarium said that explosives were the most humane option because the 10m, 20-tonne whale was too large to be shot or put down by fatal injection.
An explosive charge was placed at the animal's head for a messy but instantaneous kill.
In response to the incident, some South African conservationists were calling for more sophisticated stranding rescue networks, as established in the US and some other countries, that could allow whales to be successfully refloated rather than destroyed.

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