Sydney researchers who struggled to save an orphaned whale admit they could have done more.
Animal activists heckled authorities at Pittwater over the way the baby humpback was put down with a lethal injection.
Wildlife authorities say they'll begin considering ideas to save whales that become stranded in similar situations in the future.
But the RSPCA's Steve Coleman says there was nothing else they could have done .
“That animal was in the throes of dying. We would have been surprised if it had survived another day.”
Earlier
It’s been revealed that the recently euthanized abandoned baby humpback whale, affectionately referred to as Colin, was in fact a girl.
Now being renamed Colette, the discovery was made after the calf’s remains were taken to Sydney’s Taronga Zoo.
"They'll do a post-mortem to actually see what condition it was in and to actually see what might have been the problem," Barnes said.
The month old calf was given an overdose of anesthetic, after authorities found her in a bad way this morning.
She was having trouble breathing, and suffering bad cuts.
The calf was put down behind the breakwater at The Basin, in Sydney’s Pittwater – it took seven injections before the drugs finally took effect.
Colette could be seen moving in the water for up to 10 minutes, and was still thrashing around when dragged to shore.
In a last bid to try and save her, local activists served an injunction on national parks to try and stop them, but it couldn’t be served in time.
Animal welfare groups insisted there was nothing more they could do to save her.
John Dengate from the NPWS says his team had exhausted all possible options.
“It’s been I think on everyone’s mind – couldn’t you just do something, couldn’t you just feed it, can’t you get it out to a pod of whales?
“What I would say to those people is that we’ve tried every single technique that anyone with any kind of standing in the industry has suggested.”
Meanwhile, a whale carcass found off the NSW south coast not far from Eden may possibly be Colette's mother.
According to National Parks and Wildlife Sservices (NPWS) director Sally Barnes authorities hope DNA tests will shed some light on Colette’s tragic death.
"That carcass is being eaten by sharks at the moment," Barnes told AAP.
"If it's safe, what we'll try and do is actually get some DNA from that carcass to see whether that was in fact Colette's mother and to help us piece together what's been happening to that whale over the last week or so."
