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More pilot whales were found stranded in Australia on Wednesday, bringing the estimated total to nearly 500, including 380 who have died, in the largest mass stranding ever recorded in the country.
Authorities had already been working to rescue survivors from an estimated 270 whales found Monday on a beach and two sandbars near the remote coastal town of Strahan in the southern island state of Tasmania.
Another 200 beached whales were spotted from a helicopter on Wednesday, less than 10 kilometers to the south, said Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service manager Nic Deka.
All 200 had been confirmed dead by late afternoon.
Uncredited / AP
Aerial video shows numerous whales washed up along the coast Wednesday near the remote west coast town of Strahan in Australia’s island state of Tasmania.
They were among 380 whales that had died in total, 30 that were alive but stranded and 50 that had been rescued since Tuesday, Deka said.
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“We will continue to work to free as many animals as we can,” he said. “We will continue working as long as there are live animals.”
Brodie weeds / AP
Members of a rescue team stand with whales on a sandbar.
About 30 whales in the original stranding were moved from the shoals to the open sea on Tuesday, but several were stranded again.
About a third of the first group had died Monday night.
Uncredited / AP
The reason the whales ran aground is a mystery. The pod may have been washed ashore to feed or by the misfortune of one or two whales, prompting the rest of the pod to follow, says wildlife biologist Kris Carlyon.
Tasmania is the only part of Australia prone to mass stranding, although they occasionally occur on the Australian mainland.
Australia’s largest mass stranding had previously been 320 pilot whales near the town of Dunsborough in the state of Western Australia in 1996.
The latest stranding is the first involving more than 50 whales in Tasmania since 2009.
Brodie weeds / AP
Marine Conservation Program wildlife biologist Kris Carlyon said the latest mass stranding was the largest in Australia “in terms of numbers of stranded and dead.”
Marine Conservation Program wildlife biologist Kris Carlyon said the latest mass stranding was the largest in Australia “in terms of numbers of stranded and dead.”
The reason the whales ran aground is a mystery. The pod may have been swept ashore to feed or by the misfortune of one or two whales, prompting the rest of the pod to follow, Carlyon said.
Brodie weeds / AP
Marine scientists say that rescue teams don’t always work because the whales want to return to the pod.
“It is very likely that this was the only event run aground of a large group. This would have been a great group on the high seas, ”he said.
Marine scientist Vanessa Pirotta said there were a number of possible reasons why the whales could be stranded, including navigation errors.
Brodie weeds / AP
Rescue crew members and boats are used to assist a beached whale on a sand bar near Strahan, Australia.
“They have a very strong social system, these animals are closely linked and that is why we have seen so many in this case, unfortunately in this situation,” said Pirotta.
And rescuing them does not always work “because they want to return to the capsule, they can hear the acoustics of the vocalizations of the sounds that others make, or they are simply disoriented and in this case extremely stressed, and probably so fatigued that in some cases they don’t know where they are, ”he added.
In New Zealand, more than 600 pilot whales appeared off the South Island at Farewell Spit in 2017, and more than 350 died.
