A fight for life……..

***All photographs are copyright to Marc Russo. Contact me via marcrussophotography@gmail.com to purchase***

Well this fishing trip started off like all others…..
Planning, preparing and the pain staking wait till the day we head off away from work and the stresses of life.
This trip was to target the migrating Australian Salmon , we were heading down to Hamelin bay in the south-west Australia. Such beautiful country with pure white sandy beaches.

The plan was to meet our friends down the Hamelin bay caravan park. They had already set up camp in tents then get into the fishing straight away.
We were hoping to get out on the boat the very first day but april time of year can be a bit rough and windy so i had my fingers crossed.

The plan was for me and my friend Ziggy to leave Perth really early around 5.30am on the saturday and be at Hamelin bay by 8.00-8.30.

The Saturday finally came and i woke up bright and early around 4.00am and headed over to Ziggy’s house.
With the Holden SS commodore packed full of fishing gear and camping equipment we were off on our action packed holiday. Little did we know what we had in store for us….
We stopped off not far out of Hamlin bay amoungst the forrest for some quick photos and strech the legs.

We arrived at Hamelin bay around 9am and set up tent and mingled with Bodies family, had a bite for breakfast and took a short walk down to the beach around 100 meters away. It looked magic but unfortunately out past the island in the open ocean was a different story. It was to rough and choppy to get the boat out so we were restricted to fishing from the shore. We grabbed our fishing gear and did some fishing, caught some really nice king george whiting and i took advantage of the lovely surround and took some photos.

We finished off the day on the beach hand feeding the massive sting rays that visit the beach and love the human contact.

Unfortunately the weather forecast for the next day wasnt much better so we planned to beach fish again.

We went back to camp and had dinner and retired for the night.
I was in my tent and fast asleep by 11.00pm with no idea what the next day had in store.

I was woken by Bodie bashing on the tent yelling ” get up! get up!” and i distinctly remember him say ” Get up ! This is front page news stuff” This was pretty ironic he said this because this is exactly what happened.

I jumper out of the tent and he ran off down the beach, he yelled back get your camera!!!

I had no idea what to expect, i grabbed the camera and headed straight down the bach and as soon as i got around the corner and seen what was in front of my eyes and it was shocking and so sad.

There were over 60 pilot whales stranded on the beach some dead, some flipping their hardest. I started snapping straight away getting great shots of such a sad and horrible sight.

My plan was to take a heap of pics then get in there and held drag them to deeper water. As i walked amongst them they would look up at me in massive amounts of distress. I remember one in particular that stared at me then died. This is the pic only seconds before it shut its eye and died.

This was so intense seeing these great creachers of the deep dying in front of us. I walked around and kept snapping away and came across this little baby one.

So sad, it had no chance but to follow its mum.
Of all the beaches in the whole of Australia on any day of the year it had to happen right on the beach im fishing on .

By this time ziggy, Bodie and Scano were trying to drag a really big one out to deeper water.

This was time to put the camera away and help.

I then ran back to camp and put the camera away and put on my board shorts and ran back to help.

I jumped in the water and grabbed the tail of a medium-sized whale and tried my hardest to pull but they we so big and heavy it was almost impossible. By now and crowd had gathered on the beach and people standing in shock. I yelled for some help and i get ziggy , bodie and scano on this whale and we started to move it and we dragged it to deeper water. We then faced it out to open ocean, i couldn’t belive my luck, first whale and we saved it well so i thought. We then grabbed the next whale and started dragging that back out. I took a look over my shoulder to see how the last whale was doing and my heart then sunk! It was heading back in to the beach, what the hell!!!
We were still busy with this next whale and we got this one free and headed it out to see and this one did the same, it was swimming free then headed back and straight to the beach. Why the hell would they do such a thing? This happened for the next 3 hours. By this time it was now 10pm, and every whale we got out to the open ocean would come straight back and beach again. Such hard work all for nothing. I remember getting so pissed off that we were trying so hard and just when we think we saved one it would come back. Maybe they stick with the pod no matter what the coast, maybe they can hear the screams of the dying on the beach and dont want to leave the pod? Who knows?
Finally calm and government agency’s rolled up and set out a plan of attack and set up a command post.
We all had to sign on and only allowed 2 hours at a time in the water for safety reasons.
They had a plan of bringing the surviving whales up ont the beach for the night and look after them all night then take them by truck around the corner to Augusta.
All us guys and girls took a break and went and had breakfast, plan was to come back and help for the rest of the afternoon. We went back and signed on and got given hats , suncream drinks etc. By this time there was a massive turnout, police, ambulances, news crews, etc.
There was a ute heading to another pod of 30 whales and a couple of dolphins way down the coast so i jumped on the back of this ute and headed off, i was on my own.

I lost my mates somewhere amongst the signing on. I was now on a mission to collect whales and bring them up the coast 5 klms to the commend post. Trust me to get the hard job of swimming a 1 tonne whale that far. On the way there i spotted a baby whale swimming by its self amongst the surf. I jumped off the ute and ran over and jumped in the water after it, this sacred it and it swam out to deeper water but was heading back to the shore. Next thing i know its heading straight for me and i was going to tackle it, i grabbed it and it knocked me over but i still held on like anything. It was flipping and screaming .
I was up to my waist in the water and yelled for help. 4 guys pulled op in there ute and helped me bring it to the shore. We then lifted it onto the try of the ute. We placed a wet towel under it and once on the try the poor thing was sqeeking for its mum and looked so sad and terrified and also had some cuts and abrasions from the reef.
This was heart breaking. I then helped unload this little guy off the ute and some specialised people would care for it. Cant beleave i saved this little guy.
There was now warnings in place that a few white pointer sharks and larger sharks have moved it and we had to be really carefull.

I looked around at the commend post and the site was sad. Lots of dead whales all laying there. I went back down the beach and helped and another whale. This one was a monster and 3 guys were struggling with it. They had a harness under it and were in waist deep water trying to get it to deeper water. I grabbed hold of the side of the whale and pushed as hard as possible. We ended up getting it out deep. I was now in water up to my neck and the guy opposite me said something i will never forget… ” Dont look behind you, there is a big shark swimming past ” I looked over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of a big fin go past me within 2 meters. I literally shat my pants almost and was about to make a swim back to the shore when the guy said “dont move, stay still, if you swim back it will go for you”
This was the most scariest time i have ever been though. The sharks were attracted due to the blood in the water and distress calls of the whales.
I had now been in the water for a total off 6 hours since i get in the water in the morning. By this time i was totally exhausted and had to give up for my own safety and there now were professionals on the scene.

I met up with my mates and had a late lunch and discussed what a shocking day it had been and what we will do now that the whole beach is busy with people. I wondered if the westaustralian would be interested in any of my pictures. I couldn’t get phone reception at the camp site so i walked down to the beach. I just got reception and i rang the west australian news paper. They were so interested in exclusive rights to the pics. I drove around to Augusta and uploaded them onto a computer at the internet cafe and emailed them off.
We then went back to the camp and all the roads were blocked off for the rescue effort but they allowed us campers though .
Went i got back i took a walk down to the beach to see how it was coming along. I took my camera and took loads more pics. I seen the little baby pilot whale i had saved in the water being looked after by some people. They even had a nick name for the little fella.

It was so good to see how much resources we have put it to help save these creachers but unfortunately most had died.

They had quite a few up on the beach with an army of people with buckets of water keeping the whales wet through the night.
Would they last the night?

I went to bed early and woke up around 5.30 with the plan to have a fish around the corner after breakfast and took a walk down to the beach. There were around 21 still alive and the trucks were there ready to take them around to Augusta where the water was really deep and they have a better chance.

The saddest thing was that the little baby whale i rescued didnt make the night and died.
I walked back to the little deli with a tear in my eye and went to see if any of my pics had made the paper. I was expecting a small picture somewhere in the paper.
As i walked up to the stand where the papers were kept i seen something that would boost my photographic carrea.
It was the biggest front page photo i have ever seen on any newspaper and it was my shot!! This made me so happy and give me something to brag about for the rest of my life. unfortunately it came at the cost of the death of 60 whales.

As i walked back to the camp with the most shocked look on my face i walked past a car with 2 guys sitting drinking coffee. he asked me if this was the current paper, i said yes and i bragged about making front page. He then introduced himself as a journalist from a current affair and if he could interview me. I said no worrys but after fishing. I said i would be back around 11am. I walked back to camo and showed off the paper, what a shock this was to make front page of out states best news paper!
We then went for a fish for a hour, while i was gone a film crew came and asked for me. They had come early and i missed out on the interview. I wasnt to fazed, i was still so happy about the news paper. While we were gone they carted off the remaining whales to Augusta. later we heard that most the whales they released swam back onto the rocks or got eaten but sharks. Report were that they seen 2 whales swimming off together. I just hope that those 2 lived . Such a sad end to a massive effort from everyone. I have never been more proud to be a australian as these last few days seeing us aussies helping so many whales that need our help and all us people helping each other, people we had never met. These people worked though the night till the morning , such an effort.
The beach was now cleaned of al the whale carcasses and free of any evidence of what had been going on the days before.

Only clue was a shark warning sign.

This was a true fight for life..

This is a private message i received on sea Shepard website that i found very touching…

I sent all my photos to a mammologist in Sydney to help with research. Hopefully my pictures will help in some way to prevent this from happening or maybe help with action plans to help save them in the future.
. Since then my picture has made ” images of the decade” in the west australian news paper …

and also in the new scientist Callender for 2010.

I have also had an article written all about my luck about being in the right place and the right time

What a surreal experience, such sadness yet this is nature at its harshest. I was happy to document it and lend a hand doing my best to help save such a great mammals