These pilot whales were spotted on an exposed, wave-swept beach on Tasmania’s rugged west coast.
AUSTRALIA — Around 200 pilot dolphins, or pilot whales, have died after washing up on an exposed, wave-swept beach on Tasmania’s rugged west coast, Australian rescuers said on Thursday (September 22).
Only 35 of the approximately 230 whales spotted on the beach the previous day are still alive, Brendon Clark, chief of operations for the State Wildlife Service, told reporters at the scene.
Aerial footage showed dozens of glossy black mammals stranded on Ocean Beach, along a wide stretch of sand in contact with the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean.
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“We still have about 35 live animals on the beach and this morning the main objective will be to rescue and free them,” said Brendon Clark, who is leading operations.
“Unfortunately, the fatality rate in this stranding is high. This is mainly due to the conditions at Ocean Beach,” he said.
“The environmental conditions, the undertow on the exposed west coast, Ocean Beach, certainly have consequences for the animals,” he added.
Almost two years to the day after another massive grounding
Residents had covered the whales with blankets and doused them with buckets of water to keep them alive after they were found on the beach.
The whales were stranded near Macquarie Harbour, the scene of another massive stranding nearly two years ago involving nearly 500 stranded pilot dolphins.
More than 300 of them were then dead, despite the efforts of dozens of volunteers who fought for days in Tasmania’s freezing waters to free the animals.
Brendon Clark said conditions were tougher this year than two years ago as the animals were in “much more sheltered waters”.
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Rescuers have been sighting whales to assess which have the best chance of surviving, he said.
“Today the focus will be on rescue operations and their liberation.”
The reasons for these large strandings are not fully understood.
Researchers have suggested they could be caused by groups of whales straying too close to shore after feeding.
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