A Mount Aspiring College (MAC) student has qualified as a Marine Medic, mastering the skills needed to help rescue stranded whales and dolphins.

Laura Neale, a Year 13 student, recently attended a Project Jonah course in Timaru, which included hands-on practical training with life sized and weighted models of dolphins and pilot whales.

Each year, hundreds of whales and dolphins strand on New Zealand’s shores. Some are sick or injured, but others are healthy and just need a helping hand back out to sea. But successful rescues depend on properly trained volunteers, such as Laura, who is now on the national rescue callout list.

“It’s really exciting - if you’ve completed the course you get contacted if there’s a stranding in your region,” Laura said.

Of course, while she lives in Wanaka she’s not likely to be called out for many rescues close by. 

The trainees run to help a stranded “dolphin”.

“The hot spot is Farewell Spit,” she said. “Whales migrate through Cook Strait and get stuck because the ocean depths change annually.” 

The Project Jonah course was Laura’s official training in such rescues, but doing the course made her realise “this is definitely what I want to do, being hands-on helping the animals”. 

“With the changing climate people are interested in how things are getting affected, including the oceans, where oxygen is being depleted,” Laura said. Oxygen depletion in the oceans is threatening some marine species and ecosystems.

Laura is currently studying physics, chemistry, biology, calculus, and food and nutrition at MAC, and has enrolled at Auckland University next year for a double degree in marine science and biological science.

PHOTOS: Supplied