Greater than 150 false killer whales washed up on a distant beach on Australia’s island state of Tasmania, officials said.
Marine experts and veterinarians were on the scene near Arthur River on Tasmania’s northwest coast to assist the 157 whales – of which only 90 gave the impression to be alive.
Department of Natural Resources and Environment liaison officer Brendon Clark said the inaccessibility of the beach, ocean conditions and challenges to getting specialist equipment to the distant area were complicating a response.
Authorities have said the whales – which weigh greater than 1000 kilos – couldn’t be refloated from the exposed surf beach.
‘To attempt to refloat the animals directly back into that surf could be difficult after which in fact that will also present some enormous safety risks for our staff and personnel,’ Mr Clark told reporters.
A choice has since been made to euthanise the remaining surviving whales.
He said the stranding was the primary by false killer whales in Tasmania since 1974 when a pod of greater than 160 whales landed on a beach near Stanley on the northwest coast. Strandings in Tasmania are frequently pilot whales.
Mr Clark declined to invest on why the newest pod may need been stranded. Carcasses of dead whales could be examined for clues, he said.
The whales were found on Tuesday afternoon by resident Jocelyn Flint’s son, who discovered the stranded whales around midnight while fishing for sharks.
She said she had gone to the scene in the dead of night hours of the morning and returned after dawn however the whales were too big to try to refloat them.
‘The water was surging right up and so they were thrashing. They’re just dying, they’ve sunk down within the sand. I feel it’s too late. There are little babies. Up one end, there’s plenty of big ones. It’s sad.’
In 2022, 230 pilot whales stranded further south on the west coast at Macquarie Harbour.
The biggest mass stranding in Australian history occurred in the identical harbour in 2020 when 470 long-finned pilot whales became stuck on sandbars. A lot of the beached whales died on each occasions.
The explanations for the beachings are unclear. Reasons could include disorientation attributable to loud noises, illness, old age, injury, fleeing predators and severe weather.
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