TT: Whale beaches in TT

A few spent the day Sunday pouring buckets of water on the animal, attempting to coax the whale back into deeper water.

Some cut chunks of blubber, and carved their symbols and names onto the skin.

Others kicked, dragged, and used the whale as a diving platform.

"They are criminals. Although I was frightened, I was trying to keep it alive and they were doing all kinds of things to this innocent thing" said Trevor Roopan, who discovered the whale on Sunday morning, half a mile east of Pt Sable, La Brea.

Roopan said he spent the next five hours, helped by two girls, keeping the whale wet, while discouraging a gathering crowd.

By early yesterday, hundreds of people, including Opposition Members of Parliament Chandresh Sharma and Dr Adesh Nanan had come by boats, cars, and on foot, wanting to see the whale, about a quarter mile offshore.

Boat owners charged between $20 and $100 for the trip.
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Dexter Learmont said "we tied some rope around the belly of the whale and try to pull it out, but it kept coming back. Like it just wanted to die".

Meanwhile, with police officers stationed on a boat nearby, people began piling onto the whale, which was at one point buried in a foot of sand.
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At around 5pm the whale was returned to sea, dragged into the Gulf of Paria by a tug boat using slings provided by veterinarians from the Mt Hope Hospital.

Capitalism is alive and well in TT.