A week after the whales were found, then director of NOAA's National Marine Mammal Laboratory, Howard Braham, asked me to go work with the press and make sure they had accurate information about these incredible creatures.
It was freezing — about 30 to 40 degrees below zero every day during the rescue, so not at all like the average whale stranding at the beach. This was October in Alaska and everyone on the scene had to endure a lot of difficult conditions to be there. Meanwhile, it was a total zoo in Barrow with all the reporters there. At the time, we didn't know why this had captured the whole world's attention, but all eyes were on us. The whales were relatively young and confused. All of the other gray whales had started migrating much earlier, but these three whales stayed in the feeding grounds too long. As a result, they were trapped by ice as temperatures continued to drop. Once we started moving the whales toward freedom, however, I couldn't help but think that they knew something was happening. They seemed to understand that we were there to help them along.

License information: nan
MPAA: G
Go to source: https://www.commonlit.org/texts/noaa-s-big-miracle-worker