He’s a sensationalist making claims that are untrue. He’s posing himself as some expert in re-floating whales off the beach. That doesn’t exist because most times when a whale ends up on the beach, it’s already on its way to death’s door and there’s nothing to be done. That seems to be the case for this whale.

I am a marine biologist and have worked on over a dozen live whale strandings in locations around the world. None of those whales survived. I could write an entire dissertation on why it is so challenging and why success is so low.

For Lehmann to criticize those involved and say that excluding him was reckless because he “knows” better than them is gross. He’s a social media influencer who uses marine animals and marine science to elevate his social media platform - and that’s what he wants to do with this whale. He doesn’t know better than anyone else because none of us have a good strategy to help these animals - they’re usually too far gone. And this skinny, disease-ridden, and actively entangled whale is exactly that. There is no hope for this animal. It is going to die on that beach. But that’s a lot more depressing to say as an expert - instead Lehmann is selling snake oil as a cure to a stranded whale and looking to financially benefit from his involvement in the stranding.

I think he’s a child for lashing out and criticizing, I think he’s reckless and selfish for thinking his ideas are best and then attempting to implement them despite working as a part of a larger team. He’s taking attention away from the actual problem and I’m sick of social media scientists using their platform to spread further bias.