Good new, for once

Phil Gast and Rich Phillips have an article at CNN.com about two lucky whales:

Volunteers and veterinarians caring around the clock for stranded pilot whales were buoyed by news that two had been released off the Florida Keys. After being transported by boat, the males swam away into the Atlantic Ocean about nine miles off the lower Florida Keys shortly before 6 p.m., said Karrie Carnes of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The pair are twelve and thirteen feet long and weigh more than 1,000 pounds each. They are considered teenagers.
Five other surviving pilot whales are being cared for in a pen at Cudjoe Key, about twenty miles east of Key West. "They are being literally cradled 24 hours a day," Carnes said.
Fourteen whales died after stranding themselves in shallow waters over a twelve-mile stretch of sand flats. Veterinarians are not sure why the protected whales came to shore, said Carnes, adding that they are usually found in three-hundred-meter-deep waters in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. "We may never know why this group stranded." The pod showed no evident signs of significant emaciation or illness, but may have become disoriented and followed each other to the shore. "They are very social animals," Carnes said.
The rescue effort has included hundreds of federal and state employees, veterinarians, and volunteers, said Carnes, who works at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
Rescuers plan to transfer the five survivors to a rehabilitation facility in Key Largo once they are healthy enough to undergo the journey, Carnes told CNN. Tents and wet sheets are protecting the five from the sun and temperatures. Veterinarians are checking their blood and body fluids, and are pumping them with antibiotics and enzymes. Volunteers from the Marine Mammal Conservancy in Key Largo have been crucial to the operation. "For a lot of people, marine animals are very charismatic," Carnes said. "People have a love of the ocean and mysteries of the deep."
Sea World, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission have also provided assistance in the lifesaving effort.
Adult pilot whales can measure up to twenty feet long and weigh up to three tons. Due to their social nature, they are often involved in mass strandings, according to the American Cetacean Society, a non-profit group based in California that works to protect whales, dolphins, and porpoises.
A similar incident occurred in the Florida Keys in 2003, when 28 whales were stranded. Most of them died but, after several months of care, five were released back into the ocean.