The Nation - News from Sept. 21, 1986

Marine mammal rescuers failed in their first attempt to capture porpoises locked in a deadly freshwater lake formed by a surging glacier near Yakutat in the southeast Alaska panhandle. About 25 porpoises outsmarted their would-be rescuers and eluded capture, said Joy McBride of the California Marine Mammal Center. Underwater sounds--including small explosives--were used to herd porpoises toward nets. The herding worked, McBride said, but as the porpoises swam near the nets and were close to capture, they escaped by swimming under the rescuers’ boats.