By Angela Heathcote, ABC
Rescuing whales can be stressful, but having the right tools makes the procedure easier and safer. In this stranding on the Chatham Islands in 2022, 250 pilot whales died or had to be euthanised. Photo: Supplied / Tamzin Henderson
This story contains content some people might find distressing.
A whale's heart can grow up to 1.5 metres in length and can weigh up to 125 kilograms.
It is Girius Antanaitis' job to build a needle large enough to pierce it.
The engineer's whale euthanasia kit, designed and built in his home workshop in Melbourne, is a much-desired alternative to euthanasia methods of the past, which have been a matter of trial and error.
Girius Antanaitis has worked with vets to develop customised tools for use on Australian wildlife. Photo: Supplied/ Girius Antanaitis
There are anecdotal accounts of dynamite being placed down blowholes. In Western Australia, cranial implosion is still favoured.
Then there's the firearm option, which is not ideal for larger species such as the humpback.
Of course, we could always do nothing, but that is not as easy as it sounds.
It can take days for a whale to die as their skin scabs in the sun and scavengers make a premature meal of them.
This is something Antanaitis finds difficult to stomach, which is why he went from designing surgical tools for humans to designing tools for wildlife.
There are wombat dental gags, which help veterinarians maintain the marsupial's oral health, tiny surgical kits for delicate work on bird bones, and of course the metre-long whale needles.
The wombat dental gag Girius developed with vets, who were struggling to handle the large marsupial. Photo: Supplied/ Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital
"I have always cared for and felt a part of our natural world," Antanaitis says.
"I have a specific set of skills, and I want to quietly use this to make our world a better place.
"In particular, to help animals that are either forgotten, not cute, commercially non-viable or on their way to extinction."
A very large needle
While dog and cat owners are ready to front up the costs for veterinary care, wildlife do not typically have someone to pay the vet bills.
This is why veterinary surgical tools are made for domestic animals and are mostly unfit for wildlife.
This is where Antanaitis saw use for his skills.
In 2013, he began contacting wildlife organisations such as Melbourne Zoo about creating specialised veterinary tools for wildlife.
"Pretty much straight away they wrote back to me asking, 'Is it possible to create needles to humanely euthanase large beached whales?'."
Girius has developed a needle that is capable of euthanasing large species of whale humanely. Photo: Supplied/ Girius Antanaitis
A paper had recently been published in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases documenting successful attempts by an American marine rescue team to euthanise large whales with a custom-made needle delivering potassium chloride, and Australians vets were eager to try it.
The first inception of the kit was improvised. A commercial garden sprayer was initially used to house the potassium chloride.
When Duane March, a veterinarian with an extensive background in marine animal rescues, heard about the kits, he imported one but found it was not up to scratch.
March subsequently worked closely with Antanaitis on his formulation of the kit, which he says is as "humane as possible".
"The beauty of his needles [is] they're designed specifically for this purpose," he says.
A sperm whale died during the night after it stranded on a Christchurch beach in November. Photo: Katie Oliver / Project Jonah
The kit consists of three needles to accommodate different species and measure from 1m to 1.5m in length. All are 8mm in diameter.
"The trickiest thing [is] … they're not like a standard needle, where it's just a tube with a hole and a sharp tip," Antanaitis says.
"My needles all have to be closed, so it doesn't core the animal while it goes in.
"It has a pyramid tip that cuts its way through."
Antanaitis' consultation with vets has meant the kit could be refined over and over again.
The kit now comes with an attachable handle so vets can get a better aim beneath the pectoral fin (the best entry way for the needle) and a glove compartment.
"It comes with a suggested pair of gloves," he says, which is seemingly the only thing [Antanaitis] couldn't manage to standardise.
New Australian guidelines
Marine animal rescues are emotionally charged situations, Duane says.
"Trying to euthanase a 30-tonne animal without the appropriate gear is horrible.
"It's really stressful for the operator and it's not humane for the animal."
The Australian federal government is working on a set of national guidelines for whale euthanasia.
In 2021, Antanaitis was asked to build a new set of whale kits, this time with intramuscular needles that would sedate the region the intracardiac needle was inserted into.
Duane has been a major contributor to the new set of guidelines.
He says, while they aren't prescriptive, they offer a strong framework for rescuers to assess their situation and choose the most humane option.
"It means then that if we've got a humpback in Merimbula or Lennox Head, as long as we've got vets trained up locally and the equipment supplied to national parks locally, then no animals are going to suffer unnecessarily."
- This story was first published by the ABC
