HOBART, Australia — About 230 whales have been stranded on Tasmania’s west coast, simply days after 14 sperm whales had been discovered beached on an island off the Australian state’s northwestern coast.
The pod stranded on Ocean Beach in Macquarie Harbour seems to be pilot whales and not less than half are presumed to nonetheless be alive, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania stated Wednesday.
A staff from the Marine Conservation Program was assembling whale rescue gear and heading to the world, the division stated.
The whales beached two years to the day after the biggest mass-stranding in Australia’s historical past was found in the identical harbor.
About 470 long-finned pilot whales had been discovered on Sept. 21, 2020, caught on sandbars. After a weeklong effort, 111 of these whales had been rescued however the remainder died.
The entrance to the harbor is a notoriously shallow and harmful channel often called Hell’s Gate.
Local salmon farmer Linton Kringle helped within the 2020 rescue effort and stated the most recent problem can be tougher.
“Last time they were actually in the harbor and it’s quite calm and we could, sort of, deal with them in there and we could get the boats up to them,” Kringle informed Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“But just on the beach, you just can’t get a boat in there, it’s too shallow, way too rough. My thoughts would be try to get them onto a vehicle if we can’t swim them out,” Kringle added.
Vanessa Pirotta, a wildlife scientist specializing in marine mammals, stated it was too early to elucidate why the stranding had occurred.
“The fact that we’ve seen similar species, the same time, in the same location, reoccurring in terms of stranding at that same spot might provide some sort of indication that there might be something environmental here,” Pirotta stated.
David Midson, basic supervisor of the West Coast Council municipality, urged folks to remain clear.
“Whales are a protected species, even once deceased, and it is an offense to interfere with a carcass,” the atmosphere division stated.
Fourteen sperm whales had been found Monday afternoon on King Island, a part of the state of Tasmania within the Bass Strait between Melbourne and Tasmania’s northern coast.
Griffith University marine scientist Olaf Meynecke stated it’s uncommon for sperm whales to clean ashore. He stated that hotter temperatures may be altering the ocean currents and transferring the whales’ conventional meals.
“They will be going to different areas and searching for different food sources,” Meynecke stated. “When they do this, they are not in the best physical condition because they might be starving so this can lead them to take more risks and maybe go closer to shore.”
The pilot whale is infamous for stranding in mass numbers, for causes that aren’t fully understood.
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This story corrects that King Island is northwest of Tasmania, not southeast.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”