Retired Co Down coastguard helps stranded whale back out to sea

A commercial diver who single-handedly helped a stranded minke whale back out to sea after it had become stuck on a sandback has described his experience as 'fantastic'.
By The Newsroom
Published 4th Oct 2017, 19:19 BST
Updated 12th Dec 2017, 12:30 BST
Still image taken from video footage of the dramatic rescue published by the BBCStill image taken from video footage of the dramatic rescue published by the BBC
Still image taken from video footage of the dramatic rescue published by the BBC

Co Down man John Lowry told the BBC he was driving home from work when he came across the huge creature stranded near Newcastle promenade.

The retired coastguard, who had helped rescue a stranded whale before, put on his dry suit and set to work.

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“The first thing I did was to try and get the head of the whale pointed out to sea, so that if I could get him to move that he was going directly out to sea,” he told the BBC.

“What happens with them is they get mixed up with their navigation. The way these whales work is like a sonar and when they get beached they would just keep swimming into shore.”

He added: “I just kept working with the whale and trying to push him out.

“Every time a small wave came, it pushed the whale up and I pushed and he finned and it took approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

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“He kicked off one big final kick of his powerful tail and away he went and it was great.

“It would have been nice if there had’ve been somebody there with me to enjoy the experience even more. But I was on my own and I was just so glad to see such a beautiful animal get to safety.

“A lot of the people on the beach were very happy. A lot of children were very happy to see it.”

Mr Lowry also advised anyone who comes across a similar situation not to approach it “unless you have experience” due to the creature’s enormous strength.

Related topics:NewcastleBBC