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Pilot Whale Gets Stuck In New Bedford

NEW BEDFORD (CBS) - A pilot whale has lost course and is now stuck in, of all places, New Bedford, the Whaling City. The animal somehow got separated from its pod. That's the herd it normally travels with and depends on to get food.

"It's very unusual to have a live single animal in an area like this," says Brian Sharp, who's a rescuer with the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

whale
Pilot whale stranded in New Bedford.

It's the same whale that was stranded on Nantucket Sound Saturday, and then showed up south of the New Bedford Harbor Wednesday. Now, the animal is circling the harbor between bulkheads and seawalls near the New Bedford-Fairhaven Bridge.

"It's not a good indication for the health of the animal because the animals been by itself for close to a week now," says Sharp.

Rescuers are hoping to coax it to a shallow corner, so they can take blood samples and determine if it's healthy enough to survive a trip back into the open ocean.

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