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Global Whale Rescue Alliance

The GWRA Protocol

for distressed, wayward and live-stranded cetaceans

A global, evidence-based standard for saving whales and dolphins: detect early, examine without touching, treat before the animal declines, rehabilitate, release, follow, and publish every case. No animal is euthanized or abandoned.

Version 1.0 · October 2026 Public consultation edition English & German
Every one of these cases had a window. Hope was visible for at least 15 months before her final stranding, entangled and trapped in a sea that could not sustain her. Hartwin was photographed in eight countries over seven months, visibly sick, and never examined; he died of a spinal infection that blow samples might have revealed in time. Dolly/Stormy was filmed losing balance 90 minutes before stranding; no blood test followed, no diagnosis, and a sedative before nightfall. The calf Toa was guided out to sea alone, with no tag and no follow-up, and died the next day.

In every case the window was used to watch rather than act. The GWRA Protocol is built from these lessons. Each of its rules answers a gap that cost an animal its life.

Most mass stranded animals are not sick

92%
with no significant pathology

97 of 106 mass-stranded whales and dolphins necropsied on Cape Cod had no significant pathological findings. In the United Kingdom, almost half of 654 animals that stranded alive showed no pathology that explained the stranding. When a healthy animal dies of the stranding itself, rescue is the treatment.

Bogomolni et al. 2010, Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 88:143–155 · Barnett et al. 2011

Built on evidence, not opinion

Every statement in the protocol is tied to a checkable source and graded A to E by strength of evidence. Errors found in earlier documents are disclosed in a public corrections log.

~200
Sources in total

Each cited individually, with an evidence grade.

90+
Peer-reviewed studies

Papers and scientific handbooks, from veterinary pathology to diving physiology.

14
Reports, manuals & legal texts

Including the 2024 WHOI workshop report, NOAA, IWC, and the five-volume Tasmanian incident manual.

10
Protocols compared

National and international stranding and euthanasia frameworks, examined point by point.

20+
Recent conference research

Including twelve contributions from the 2026 Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals.

20+
Countries with documented cases

Rescues and failures, from Taiwan and Thailand to Brazil, Tasmania and the Baltic.

Much of the evidence is recent: about a third of the peer-reviewed studies and more than half of the conference contributions date from 2019 to 2026. The protocol reflects the science as it stands today, not as it stood twenty years ago.

Eleven principles that are not negotiable

Every step in the protocol is checked against these principles. Methods evolve; the principles stay.
I

No euthanasia

Rapid help prevents the state used to justify killing. In the hardest cases: active comfort care until rescue or natural end.

II

No abandonment

Every individual matters, whatever the status of its population.

III

Immediate care

Life-supporting care from the first moment, without waiting for permits or consensus.

IV

Post-release monitoring

Every released animal is tagged and followed, with the capacity to intervene again.

V

Total transparency

Every case, drug, dose and outcome is published. No confidential failures.

VI

Speed

Deployment within 48 hours or sooner, while the animal is still strong.

VII

Full investigation

Independent, pre-registered necropsy of every animal that dies; every response is reviewed.

VIII

Scientific basis

Measure, don't guess: body condition by drone, compared with norms for species, age and reproductive state.

IX

Constant improvement

A living document, revised after every case and every new study, with a public change log.

X

Public and media

The public sees animals in distress first. It is trained, not excluded.

XI

Human and animal safety

Risks are answered by changing the method, never by abandoning the animal.

From first sighting to release

The protocol acts at the earliest stage it can reach. The goal is to stop distress before it becomes a stranding, and a stranding before it becomes a death.

1. Detect early

Prevention

A network of public reports, photo-identification, fixed acoustic and thermal stations at bottlenecks, drones and AI detection. Every animal of concern gets a history file of its own.

Rule: a visibly sick large whale is examined non-invasively within 48 hours of the first confirmed sighting.

2. Examine without touching

Diagnosis

Body condition by drone photogrammetry, thermal imaging for fever and heart rate, blow samples for bacteria, viruses and hormones, faecal samples, field ECG by suction cup, acoustic recording.

Rule: no prognosis without minimum diagnostics. A visual-only assessment is labelled as such.

3. Treat early

Treatment

Long-acting antibiotics, vitamins and anti-inflammatories by dart, without capture; disentanglement until all gear is off; conventional and integrative veterinary medicine.

4. Stabilise, move, refloat

Rescue

Cool, shade, take weight off chest and organs; wide straps and pontoons instead of digging; towing head first only, with rests and a breathing observer who can halt at any time. Animals are moved to a safe site, not released where they were trapped.

5. Rehabilitate when needed

Care

Five tiers, from a lined beach pool to a sea pen. The right tier is the best one reachable in the time the animal has. Release is the goal from day one.

6. Release, tag, follow

Follow-up

Release near the animal's own kind, with a tag and photo-ID, at least six weeks of follow-up, and a written plan for intervening again.

7. Investigate and publish

Learning

Every case is published. Every animal that dies receives an independent necropsy that separates pre-existing disease, effects of the stranding, and effects of decisions made.

Seven response types, one decision graph

Each situation needs different people, equipment and decisions. The decision graph routes every case to its workflow. It has no euthanasia branch.
S

Single small stranding

Dolphins, porpoises, Kogia, beaked whales.

M

Mass stranding

Pilot whales and dolphins: hold offshore, find the sick animal, relocate.

L

Single large whale

Humpback, minke, fin, sperm whales: take the weight off, lift, tow.

LM

Large-whale mass stranding

Usually sperm whales. Triage sets only the order of help, never who is abandoned.

D

Free-swimming in distress

Sick, injured or entangled but still at sea: where help does most good.

W

Wayward animal

Whales in rivers, harbours or the Baltic: detect early, check health, escort out.

O

Orphans and calves

Search for the mother first; then a group, rearing, release near its kind.

+

Fragile species

Kogia and beaked whales: stress injures the heart, so speed is the treatment.

+

Zoonosis overlay

Protecting responders from transmissible disease in every response.

New technology, used for the individual animal

Much of what research has developed in recent years is put to work for rescue for the first time.

Drone photogrammetry

Measure body condition, don't guess

A grid over the aerial image, compared with species norms. Nursing beaked whale mothers are measurably thin, and that is normal.

Thermal imaging

Fever, heartbeat and traces in the water

Blowhole temperature, heart rate, inflamed areas and, with AI, the heat trace a diving whale leaves, day and night.

Blow sampling by drone

A diagnosis from a breath

Bacteria, viruses, DNA, reproductive and stress hormones and metabolites, without touching the animal.

Field ECG

Reading the heart without a needle

Suction-cup electrodes record an ECG even from free-swimming large whales: for stress, pain and heart injury during stranding, transport and care.

Remote treatment

Medicine by dart

Long-acting antibiotics for free-swimming whales, already used in humpbacks and right whale calves.

Tags and acoustics

Follow, listen, find again

Tags that shed with the skin, low-cost hydrophone buoys with automatic detection, AI photo-identification and satellite imagery for large whales.

It has been done

Rescue is not hope; it is documented practice. A few of the cases the protocol builds on:
Tasmania, 2020
114 pilot whales saved
In one of the largest mass strandings on record, animals were carried to deep water in slings beside jet boats.
NRE Tasmania 2022
Cape Cod, 1990–1999
78% released without restranding
Mass-stranded dolphins and pilot whales survived transport of up to 40 km to better release sites.
Wiley et al. 2001
Tasmania, 2007
Sperm whales saved after 96 hours
Seven of twelve stranded sperm whales returned to sea, the last after four days.
Thalmann et al. 2008
Hainan, 2024
Pilot whale after four months of care
Haitang could not keep himself afloat; he was cared for in a pool and pond, released and tracked for 52 days, diving to 621 m.
Liu et al. 2026
Taiwan, 2010
A pygmy sperm whale rehabilitated
Mei-Mei was released with a transmitter after 58 days of care. Taiwan rescues Kogia every year that are elsewhere usually given up.
China Post / CNA 2010 · Chou et al. 2024
Brazil, 2023
A calf reunited with its mother
Euthanasia was considered, then the mother was found close by. Two days later mother and calf were seen together.
Gusman-Cunha et al. 2025
Worldwide, 2019–2026
Living without flukes
Loss of the flukes is treated as grounds for euthanasia. Dolphins without flukes have lived for years in their groups; a fin whale travelled more than 7,000 km without them.
Fazioli et al. 2026 · Jahoda et al. 2025
Maui, 2017–2024
Healthy seven years later
A young humpback was freed from cable, part of which stayed in its mouth. A photo from the public showed it years later as a healthy adult.
NOAA Sanctuaries 2025
The public is part of the protocol. People on the coast, on ferries and on fishing boats see animals in distress first. Through Whale Detective they report sightings, photos and videos that become part of an animal's history file. Trained first responders give first aid before a team arrives. In mass strandings, the number of trained hands decides how many animals live. Thailand shows how: more than 20,000 trained volunteers along its coast.

Open, checkable, living

What is published

Everything, including failures

Case page, daily reports with drugs and doses, decisions and their reasons, tag tracks, necropsy questions in advance, and the results.

How it improves

After every case, every study

Yearly revision, public comment, a change log, and a public research register of open questions.

Read the full protocol

About 170 pages: principles, workflows and decision graph, diagnostics, treatment, rehabilitation, monitoring, necropsy, organisation, and the full evidence and corrections register.

English
GWRA Protocol v1.0
Full English edition, PDF.
Download English →
Deutsch
GWRA-Protokoll v1.0
Full German edition, PDF.
Download German →

Take part

Read the protocol, comment on it, and report every animal in distress. Organisations can become GWRA partners and have their teams trained.

ECHO: the early warning system → About GWRA →