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About 380 whales died off the Australian coastline in what is believed to be Australia’s largest massive swath of flying whales.
Hundreds of flying whales were found off the Tasman coast in western Australia last Monday.
Rescue teams were able to return 50 of these giant aquatic animals late Wednesday, with efforts to save about 30 whales that are still living.
Tasmanian authorities confirmed that rescue efforts will continue “as long as the whales are still alive on shore.”
“While these animals are still alive and in the water, there is hope to save them, but over time they are depleted,” said Nick Decca, regional director of the Australian Parks and Wildlife Authority.
He added that attention at the present time is focused on removing the remains of hundreds of whales that have died and are scattered on the beach, highlighting that they are working to prepare a cleaning plan. In the past, it was customary to bury dead whales or drag them out to sea after each massive stranding.
It is not yet understood why the whales are stranded on land. However, these marine animal species are known to be vulnerable to landing, posing a great threat to their lives.
The mass stranding Australia is currently witnessing is among the largest incidents of its kind in the world, and the number of whales that landed in Australia this time surpassed the largest record in the country’s history, which included 320 whales arriving. to the coast in 1996.
Where were the beached whales found?
The whales emerged from the open sea and dangled from the sand off the shore of Cape Macquarie.
The number of whales that rescue teams discovered in this area last Monday reached 270, but a helicopter detected another 200 last Tuesday near the first group that was found.
Authorities said the second group may have been washed ashore by the tide, but they are likely following the same herd.
Most of the mass whale stranding incidents in Australia occur off the coast of Tasmania, and experts believe that Macquarie’s head is one of the hot spots for this phenomenon.
The largest mass stranding on this Australian island was in 1935 when 294 whales were stranded. The last mass beaching of the island was in 2009, after 200 whales took to the beach.
How are whales saved?
A 60-person rescue team used cranes and other equipment to help the surviving whales to leave their sandy tongues and push them until they were submerged in the water.
Once the whales “float,” they head for deeper water.
Rescuers said they were able to return 50 whales to deep waters, which they described as “a success.”
Rescue efforts were hampered by the force of the tide that brought some rescued whales back to shore.
Tom Mountainney, a fisherman who helped with the rescue, told the BBC: “Geographically, there is a challenge in this area. It is an inland area that is actually used as a port, so we have boats and there are also hundreds of people. that fix the whales in the cranes “.
He added: “The whales are in a state of extreme calm. Being animals that weigh several tons, it is very dangerous to deal with them. But they seem to feel what we are doing for them.”
Marine life experts, especially whales, said surviving animals would suffer from exhaustion and weakness. The length of the flying whale is up to seven meters and it can weigh three tons.
Academic Peter Harrison, from the Whale Research Group at Southern Cross University, said that without floating these animals could suffer serious damage due to their great weight.
Why do whales take refuge on the beach?
Scientists say that the reason for the whales leaving the beach is unknown, but they have a number of theories that try to explain this phenomenon through them, including a theory that includes whales exposed to the temptations of the presence of fish near the beaches, which leads them to lose the correct path in the water.
As a social mammal, flying whales are known to tend to shore collectively because they undertake seasonal migratory journeys in large numbers and in tight-knit groups that depend on constant communication with each other.
And researchers speculate that it may be responsible for the crime of large groups of whales, one of the whales that leads the pack when it loses its way to shore.
Another theory suggests that whales may be vulnerable to massive strands near beaches that gradually incline toward large areas because the sonar waves released by these animals to determine their direction cannot detect the shoreline in shallow water.
Flying whales are not on the endangered species list, although their current numbers are not exactly known. Scientists estimate the number of these animals to be around one million long-finned flying whales and 200,000 short-finned flying whales worldwide.
