In 2009, a lone pilot whale was stranded on a Curaçao beach. Fortunately, he was rescued by the staff of the Curaçao Sea Aquarium. They named him Sully and spent months nursing him back to health. After being successfully rehabilitated, Sully refused to go back to the wild and was adopted by Sea World San Diego. Jonathan learns what was wrong with Sully and what had to be done to save him.

This is an HD upload of a segment originally uploaded in 2012.

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The pilot whale’s name is Sully, and his story began in July of 2009, when he stranded on a Curaçao beach. But he was incredibly lucky to land there, since it’s home to the Curaçao Sea Aquarium—one of the few places in the entire Caribbean with the facilities and expertise to care for him.

George Kieffer, the president of the Southern Caribbean Cetacean Network was quick to respond when he got a telephone call alerting him to the stranded pilot whale on a beach only ten minutes from his office.

He had swam right out of the bay and could come back in the bay again, so I don’t think he was disoriented. I think it was one of those situations where this animal is physically incapable of keeping himself at the surface so, I think a lot of times these animals will strand because they just don’t want to drown, you know? And if they can support themselves in the shallows, that’s what they’re looking to do.

The Sea Aquarium staff immediately sprung into action. Because Sully was too weak to stay afloat on his own, they used foam pool floats to help support his weight, and lots of human helpers.

Next, they needed to get some fluids into him because he was so dehydrated. Using a funnel attached to a plastic tube in his mouth, they poured fresh water right into his system. Although Sully lives in the sea and is surrounded by water, he can’t drink any of it because it's salty. He gets all his fresh water in the fish and squid he normally eats. If he hasn’t been eating, he hasn’t been drinking either. Without lots of water fast, his kidneys would fail.

Once Sully was hydrated, George decided to see if he would eat anything. The dolphins at the Sea Aquarium like Herring, so George brought over a bucket of herring to try on Sully. He wasn’t sure if the whale would accept food from him.

But Sully was hungry and he gulped down the fish from George. He got so excited that they had a hard time keeping a hold on him!

Within only a few days, Sully gained a lot of strength and looked like he was ready to swim by himself. The floatation devices were removed one at a time, and Sully swam on his own! But his road to recovery had only just begun.

Within a few weeks, Sully was strong enough that he was getting rambunctious.

George and the Sea Aquarium staff led Sully out to a pod of pilot whales to make an introduction.

Unfortunately, Sully had no interest. He looked at the pod, and swam right back to the boat. Once again, he followed them straight back to his pen. Clearly, Sully had no intention of going back to the wild, but nobody knew why.

Unfortunately, Sully couldn’t stay in his pen. First of all it was designed to be temporary, and the volunteers couldn’t watch him forever. And, he was eating 6070 pounds of fish every day. The Sea Aquarium couldn’t afford to keep feeding him! They had to find another facility to take care of Sully. Someplace with the space and resources to handle a hungry pilot whale.

Fortunately, Sea World in San Diego offered Sully a permanent home. Soon George and his staff were preparing Sully for his first airplane ride.

Using a sling, they loaded Sully onto a truck carrying a custommade tank that would keep Sully in the water for his entire journey—over 3,000 miles!

Soon the truck departed from the Curacao Sea Aquarium for the airport.

George and several volunteers went along to help out. During the flight, they took turns pouring water onto Sully to keep him cool and relaxed at 30,000 feet.

In an effort to learn why Sully stranded, the Hubbs SeaWorld Marine Institute got together with the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program to test his hearing. Using sophisticated gear, they found the answer. Sully can’t hear above 10 kHz. A normal pilot whale should be able to hear up to at least 100 kHz. So basically, Sully is hard of hearing. And without being able to hear those really high frequencies, he can’t hunt using his echolocation in the deep ocean. Without being able to catch anything to eat, Sully was slowly starving to death.