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Further whale deaths in Australia
Six whales that became stranded in southwest Australia just a day after being rescued from another beach have died. Vets had to shoot three of them, while the others died naturally.
The long-finned pilot whales were part of a pod of 10 that rescuers guided back out to sea recently. Less than a day later, surveillance aircraft spotted the six on a beach about four miles away from where they had been released. Two were already dead and one died while environment officials and vets were on the way to the area. The remaining live whales were in a bad condition and were too large for injections.
Initially a group of about 90 whales and five bottlenose dolphins became stranded on the beach, with the majority of the animals dying. This mass beaching was the fifth in Australia in as many months and to date over 400 whales have died. It’s always a puzzle as to why these extremely social groups sometimes follow pod members into danger and there are a number of possible theories. However whatever the reason, once one animal heads for the dangerous shallows, the rest are likely to follow.
The mass strandings occur most often in the island state of Tasmania in Australia's southeast, and in Western Australia.
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