Hopes fade for lost baby whale in Australia

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

SYDNEY (AFP) — A desperate baby whale abandoned by its mother was still trying to suckle from yachts in an Australian harbour Wednesday as last ditch efforts were being made to save it from death.

Sailor Peter Lewis said he was woken shortly before dawn at his mooring in the vast and scenic Pittwater bay near Sydney's Palm Beach by "strange sounds on the outside of the hull of the boat."

"It sounded like a bit of a vacuum cleaner on the bottom of the boat. I finally got up and here's this whale suckling the side of the boat," he told commercial radio. "It was a very, very sad sight."

The calf tried to suckle for about an hour, then "it just seemed to give a sigh out at one stage as if, you know, this isn't working," Lewis said.

The whale calf is...