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Stranded Pilot Whales: Nearly 400 Whales Dead In Australia’s Worst Ever Mass Stranding

“Our focus is what do with the carcasses,” Nic Deka, Parks and Wildlife Service incident controller said.
Whale rescue efforts take place at Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania.
BILAL RASHID via REUTERS
Whale rescue efforts take place at Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania.

The majority of a 470-strong pod of pilot whales found stranded off the Australian state of Tasmania has died, officials said on Wednesday, as rescuers struggled in freezing waters and fading light to free those still alive.

The group, which is the biggest beaching in the country’s modern history, were first spotted on a wide sandbank during an aerial reconnaissance of rugged Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania on Monday.

After two days of a difficult and dangerous rescue attempt, state marine scientists said at least 380 of the long-finned pilot whales had died.

Hundreds of pilot whales are seen stranded on a sand bar on September 21, 2020 in Strahan, Australia.
Pool via Getty Images
Hundreds of pilot whales are seen stranded on a sand bar on September 21, 2020 in Strahan, Australia.

By late Wednesday, around fifty of the mammals were freed but experts said there was a high likelihood they would return as many did during the rescue attempt a day earlier, creating an exhausting loop for rescuers who cannot work through the night.

The outlook for the remaining 30 stranded and still alive pilot whales, a species of oceanic dolphin that grow to seven metres long and can weigh up to 3000 kilograms, was bleak.

“As time goes on, they do become fatigued and their chance of survival reduces,” Nic Deka, Parks and Wildlife Service incident controller said. “We do expect to rescue more but increasingly our focus is what do with the carcasses.”

The refloating process involves as many as four or five people per whale wading waist-deep in freezing water, attaching slings to the animals so they can be guided out of the harbour by a boat.

The stranding, about 200 kms northwest of Hobart, is the biggest on record in modern Australia and one of the largest in the world, drawing attention to a natural phenomenon that remains a mystery to scientists.

“It’s certainly a major event and of great concern when we potentially lose that many whales out of a stranding event,” said Peter Harrison, a professor at the Southern Cross University Whale Research Group.

“Quite often we only get to really see them when there are bad outcomes, such as this stranding event. We absolutely need some more investment in research to understand these whales in Australian waters.”

Rescuers work to save a pod of whales stranded on a sandbar in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania.
BRODIE WEEDING via Getty Images
Rescuers work to save a pod of whales stranded on a sandbar in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania.

Why do whales beach themselves?

It’s the question that has puzzled marine biologists for years, and continues to do so. Mass whale strandings have occurred throughout recorded modern history, and likely earlier.

“Strandings around the world are complete mysteries,” said Vanessa Pirotta, a Sydney-based wildlife scientist.

While scientists don’t know the exact reason, they do know that whales - and dolphins, which are also prone to mass beachings - are very sociable animals. They travel together in pods, often following a leader, and are known to gather around injured or distressed whales.

“There are many different factors that can cause a stranding,” said Australian government marine scientist Kris Carlyon said. “Often it’s simple misadventure - one or two or a few animals get themselves into trouble and the rest of the group might follow them in.”

This photograph taken on September 21, 2020 shows a pod of whales stranded on a sandbar in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania.
- via Getty Images
This photograph taken on September 21, 2020 shows a pod of whales stranded on a sandbar in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania.

Many of the recorded mass strandings include long-finned or short-finned pilot whales.

Olaf Meynecke, a whale researcher at Australia’s Griffith University, said pilot whales use sophisticated sonar to find prey and for orientation, so some theories link strandings to changes in electromagnetic fields.

“These changes can be caused by solar storms or earthquakes (seismic activities) but there is also a strong connection between active sonar, e.g. naval sonar, and dolphin strandings including pilot whales,” Meynecke said.

How are they rescued?

Refloating stranded whales from beaches and sandbanks is a labour-intensive, difficult and often dangerous task.

Several people are needed per whale to try push them back into deeper water at high tide. Harnesses and stretchers are often used, sometimes to attach a whale to a boat to be dragged out to sea.

Rescuers try to keep the whales upright to avoid disorientation.

“It’s extremely distressing for the whales, a lot like trying to find the door in a dark room while hearing your relatives scream for help,” said Meynecke.

The carcasses of those that don’t survive are disposed of by being dragged into open sea or buried onshore, both also arduous tasks

Teams work to rescue hundreds of pilot whales that are stranded on a sand bar in Macquarie Harbour on September 23, 2020 in Strahan, Australia.
Steve Bell via Getty Images
Teams work to rescue hundreds of pilot whales that are stranded on a sand bar in Macquarie Harbour on September 23, 2020 in Strahan, Australia.

Beaching events around the world?

New Zealand and Australia are hotspots for mass whale strandings, thanks to large colonies of pilot whales living in the deep oceans surrounding both island nations.

“They are feeding on squid in the offshore waters in these areas and it is where some of their main food sources occur supporting many thousand pilot whales,” Meynecke said.

The largest mass stranding in modern recorded history was 1,000 whales on the shores of the Chatham Islands, a New Zealand territory in the Pacific Ocean in 1918.

Pilot whales are regularly trapped in Farewell Spit, a narrow sand bar that stretches out from the most northern point of New Zealand’s South Island into the Tasman Sea for about 26 kilometres. About 600 pilot whales beached there in February 2017.

In Australia, the most recent mass stranding involved around 150 short-finned pilot whales off the country’s western coast in 2018. Australia’s largest ever beaching was 320 long-finned pilot whales, also off its western coastline, in 1996.

Cape Cod in Massachusetts, a hook-shaped peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean, is another global hotspot, with an average of more than 200 stranded whales or dolphins each year.

More than 300 sei whales died in remote waters off Patagonia, Chile, in 2015.

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