# If getting a crew of people together to try and free a beached whale a waste of time or not? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 27, 2011, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-getting-a-crew-of-people-together-to-try-and-free-a-beached-whale-a-waste-of-time-or-not/583406 "2011-05-27T05:56:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-getting-a-crew-of-people-together-to-try-and-free-a-beached-whale-a-waste-of-time-or-not/583406/1 "2011-05-27T05:56:12Z")
If you free a beached whale does it usually live or die? I can’t recall that I’ve ever heard of a beached whale surviving. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-getting-a-crew-of-people-together-to-try-and-free-a-beached-whale-a-waste-of-time-or-not/583406/2 "2011-05-27T06:07:45Z")
In googling this invention proposal was an interesting link. I’m guessing, however, it would hurt the whale prety badly just based on the whale’s mass and dragging it around. [Saving beached whales](http://mb-soft.com/public/whales.html) ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-getting-a-crew-of-people-together-to-try-and-free-a-beached-whale-a-waste-of-time-or-not/583406/3 "2011-05-27T06:21:22Z")
Blowing them up _is_ freeing them, in a way. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-getting-a-crew-of-people-together-to-try-and-free-a-beached-whale-a-waste-of-time-or-not/583406/4 "2011-05-27T06:28:59Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Blowing them up _is_ freeing them, in a way. You are the Dr. Kevorkian of cetaceans. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-getting-a-crew-of-people-together-to-try-and-free-a-beached-whale-a-waste-of-time-or-not/583406/5 "2011-05-28T04:38:53Z")
Please forgive me for a hijack to mention [an outstanding movie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_Rider) that reduces me, even on subsequent viewings, literally to tears of emotion. In the film, the Maori tribespeople could not save the beached whales but the young girl Paikea, named after the legendary Whale Rider who brought his tribe to New Zealand, succeeded. I don’t think this movie can be captured in a few scenes, but [in one scene, Paikea, on-stage, is barely able to perform a tribute to her grandfather, who, distracted by the beached whales he’s just discovered, didn’t show up](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgjtoGujva4). The movie ends happily when [young Paikea becomes the tribe’s first female chief.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAfTL1Jxp1c) ---
**Author:** ![Kilmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a6a055/32.png) [@Kilmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilmore)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-getting-a-crew-of-people-together-to-try-and-free-a-beached-whale-a-waste-of-time-or-not/583406/6 "2011-05-28T04:48:09Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Blowing them up _is_ freeing them, in a way. https://www.youtube.com/embed/1_t44siFyb4?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-getting-a-crew-of-people-together-to-try-and-free-a-beached-whale-a-waste-of-time-or-not/583406/7 "2011-05-28T05:25:47Z")
> [@Kilmore](#): > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1\_t44siFyb4](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_t44siFyb4) That clip is 41 years old and it still delivers.