A beached mother whale and her calf were dead after frantic attempts to bring the adult into deeper water failed, media reports said Tuesday, according to dpa. Throughout Monday, dozens of volunteers rushed to the beach in Hollywood, Florida, just north of Miami, to try to push the 730kg mother whale into deeper water. They held umbrellas over her to protect her from the sun and put wet towels over her. Meanwhile, her 90kg-six-month-old male calf swam not far from her, awaiting mother's return. But the mother - a beaked whale - died of a mysterious illness, and baby had to be euthanized because it was too young to survive in the wild, the Miami Herald reported. "That would be like putting a 6-month-old baby out into the world," Vanessa Lane, spokeswoman for the Marine Animal Rescue Society, told the Herald. "It wouldn't survive."
