Most of the 230 whales stranded on Tasmania’s Ocean Beach have already died. And even those that are taken into deep water could soon be stranded again. The reason is a behavior typical of pilot whales.
230 pilot whales stranded in a Tasmanian bay on Wednesday. According to authorities, only 35 of the animals were still alive on Thursday morning.
(dpa)
The day after the mass stranding of 230 pilot whales in a bay on the Australian island of Tasmania, the emergency services counted only 35 living animals on Thursday morning, a spokesman for the authorities said. Helpers were on duty to moisten the bodies of the marine mammals with buckets of water and wet towels. Australian media spoke of a “race against time”.
The pilot whales (also known as pilot whales) were stranded in remote Macquarie Bay on the west of the island on Wednesday. According to eyewitnesses, half of them were initially still alive.
“Unfortunately, the probability of survival of the pilot whales is low,” said whale researcher Olaf Meynecke from Griffith University in Queensland of the German Press Agency. Even if the surviving whales are transported to the open sea, many may try to return to their stranded friends and family, he explained.
The emotional stress of the animals, which have developed extremely close bonds with one another, is very great. “Some animals will still make it, but the majority of them will perish,” he said, adding, “For a cetacean scientist like me, this is one of the worst moments of my job.”
Enormous logistical challenges for rescuers
With heavy equipment and boats, the emergency services want to try to transport the surviving whales several hundred meters into the sea, as reported by Australian media. However, the logistical challenge is enormous: Ocean Beach, where most of the animals have washed ashore, is a 30-minute walk from the nearest parking lot.
Meanwhile, the timing of the stranding is not unusual: Pilot whales are at certain times – like now in the Australian spring and towards the end of winter – in large groups, explained the whale researcher Meynecke. This increases the risk of mass stranding. «Some animals can be sick and get lost in a bay with shallow water. Subgroups with which the whales are friends or related will follow them – literally to the death.”
Exactly two years ago, 470 pilot whales were stranded in the same bay, 111 of them survived. The current situation is very complicated because most of the whales – unlike 2020 – have been completely washed up on the beach, Brendon Clark of the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service told ABC. “Last time they were halfway in the water and had some buoyancy,” Clark explained. This time the rescue is therefore even more difficult.