Nearly 200 pilot whales have died after they were stranded on a beach off the west coast of the Australian island of Tasmania, which was the scene of another large-scale cetacean death two years ago.
After a great effort in difficult conditions, authorities announced that only 32 of the 226 stranded pilot whales had sufficient strength for a rescue.
“We are working to get whales that have been deemed fit back to the sea,” Sam Thalmann, a marine biologist, told AFP.
Aerial footage shows dozens of whales along the sand of Ocean beach.
“Unfortunately we have a high mortality rate on this stranding. This is mainly due to the exposure conditions at Ocean Beach,” said Brendon Clark, director of operations for the local wildlife department.
“Environmental conditions, the waves on the west coast, are certainly affecting the animals,” he added.
Typically, rescuers enter the water and use harnesses to return the cetaceans to the sea, but this time they employ a new technique with mechanical help from an aquaculture company.
They intend to take the animals by boat to the high seas, in order to avoid a new stranding.
After the animals were discovered, locals covered the whales with blankets and used buckets of water to keep them alive.
Two years ago, the region was the scene of the stranding of nearly 500 pilot whales, the largest ever recorded in the country. More than 300 died despite rescue efforts.
Clark said that at the time conditions were less severe for the cetaceans because they were “in much more sheltered waters.”
The rescue team examined the animals to determine which were most likely to survive, he explained.
“Today’s objectives are rescue and release operations,” insisted Clark, who also highlighted the importance of removing animal corpses from the beach to avoid attracting sharks.
– Investigation of the causes –
The remains will undergo autopsies to try to determine the reason for the stranding, which is often unknown.
Scientists suggest the phenomenon could be caused by animals that lost their way after foraging for food near the coast.
Pilot whales, which can reach six meters, are very sociable and tend to follow their group mates when they get into danger.
On some occasions, this happens when elderly, sick or injured whales swim to shore and other members of the group follow in an attempt to respond to distress signals from the stranded whale.
Some scientists believe that gently sloping beaches like those in Tasmania confuse the cetaceans’ sonar and trick them into thinking they’re out in the open.
This week, 14 dead young male sperm whales were also found stranded on a remote beach on King Island, between Tasmania and the Melbourne coast.
The death of the cetaceans could be a case of “misadventure”, wildlife biologist Kris Carlyon, from the government’s environmental agency, told the local newspaper Mercury.
New Zealand also records groundings relatively frequently.
In the country, nearly 300 animals are found stranded per year on average, according to official figures. It is not uncommon to see groups of 20 to 50 pilot whales stranded on a beach.
But the numbers can reach hundreds, as in 2017, when around 700 whales were stranded.
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