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Update: 30.11.08
There was a second mass stranding off Tasmania's west coast over the weekend in which in excess of 150 whales perished - almost double the original tally. The stranded whales were discovered on a rocky area of coastline near Sandy Cape and most had been badly injured by the rocks.
Few survivors from mass whale stranding
Only eleven pilot whales survived a mass stranding in Tasmania recently, killing 53 others. However the Marine Connection is delighted to report that the animals that were released back into the ocean are doing fine after their ordeal. Initially twelve whales were alive but unfortunately, one whale died as rescuers were returning it to the water.
Rescuers tagged five of the 11 pilot whales with satellite tracking devices so they could follow the animals’ progress. The technology had not been used in the southern hemisphere before. Within hours of being released, the tagged whales had found a larger pod of whales and were swimming east toward migration routes. The surviving whales, from a maternal pod of mothers and calves, were a mixture of young and old. Rescuers had initially moved the 11 whales more than 7 miles to a deep-water beach after they were hoisted in large slings into specially equipped trucks.
Strandings are not uncommon in Tasmania, where the whales pass by on their migration to and from Antarctic waters. The area where the whales stranded this time is an area where there have been strandings for hundreds of years. A number of theories have been put forward as to why whales strand themselves but the phenomenon remains a subject of scientific debate.
Samples for scientific research had been taken from the dead mammals. The last whale stranding in Tasmania was in March 2007 when three of the animals died.
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