I know it’s six of one and half a dozen of another, and it’s never as simple as it seems. It was a unified decision, but nevertheless it wasn’t managed as well as it should have been – if they had carried things out in a more ethical manner, and had at least warned volunteers or explained what was going on, things may not have been such a mess.

MCM is still a government department though, and awarded as Meyer be, I think things could have at least been handled with a bit more sensitivity.

The department said Meyer was a Derek Krige medallist, an award granted by the marine scientific community for lifetime achievements in technical aspects of marine science.

“He has more than 30 years experience in working with marine mammals, including whales, and is by far the most experienced person able to assess situations such as these,” the department said.

After the beaching of the whales on Saturday, Meyer was given “full authority” by the department to take decisions on how to deal with the stranded animals.

The accepted procedure in these cases was that Meyer consults the SPCA and a veterinarian on decisions that may need to be taken on euthanasia.

“This procedure was followed in this case.”

Struggled all day to save animals

Other role-players included the University of Pretoria’s Mammal Research Institute, the navy, SPCA, police, law enforcement, NSRI, and the city’s Disaster Management and environment units.

“After an entire day of struggling to save the animals under very difficult conditions, by which time five had already died, a collaborative consensus was reached by the relevant role-players that the rest of the mammals were also doomed and that they would suffer unnecessarily if not euthanised.

“The marine and coastal management fully supports Meyer and believes he acted in the best interest of the mammals, and within his mandate.”

The department said it was criticised by some people for waiting “too long” before putting the animals out of their misery.

The department began with post mortems on the 44 whales on Monday