Rescuers brave freezing temperatures to refloat pilot whale

2018 has begun with a positive story from Nova Scotia in Canada where around 100 volunteers and members of the local police and firefighters helped marine mammal experts to refloat a stranded male pilot whale.

Much of North America has been suffering from unusually low temperatures in recent weeks and the rescuers had to cope with temperatures 10 degrees below freezing as the rescue effort took place at Rainbow Haven beach, near Halifax.

Pilot whales are social creatures and can often strand in large groups but it appears on this occasion it was just one solitary whale that had come ashore. Using a floatation pontoon, the whale was carefully released back into deeper water before swimming off.