Sir, - Your correspondent Mr. Paul O'Donoghue (June 11th) worries that helping beached whales back into the water may frustrate an evolutionary attempt on the part of the whales to become land animals.
But when the whales were land animals they weren't happy and forsook terra firma for the watery, deep. Whales are descended form a four legged land animal. The earliest known whale fossils are 52 million years, old and the early whales swam by undulating their spinal columns thereby forcing their feet up and down like a modern otter.
The environmentalists should not only continue to push beached whales back into the water but, in addition, should remonstrate with these creatures on the dangers of a fickle mind. - Yours etc
Biochemistry Department,
University College Cork.