Australia: 230 Pilot Whales Stranded On Tasmanian Beach, Half Feared Dead

This is not the first of such strandings, about two years ago, one of the largest strandings was reported in Macquarie Harbour in the country involving 500 whales.

New Delhi: A pod of 230 pilot whales was found stranded on the west coast of Tasmania on Wednesday. Australian authorities said that only half appears to be alive, according to an AFP report. Aerial images shared by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania show the glossy black mammals strewn across the long beach where water meets the sand. 

Locals sprung into action and covered the surviving mammals with blankets and doused them with buckets of water to keep them alive.

The whales were "stranded near Macquarie Harbour" said the state's Department of Natural Resources and Environment, according to AFP.

"It appears about half of the animals are alive", it said. 

According to officials, marine experts with gear were en route to the spot. They will refloat the ones that are strong enough to survive and tow the carcasses out to sea to avoid attracting sharks to the area. 

Signs Of Distress

This is not the first of such strandings. About two years ago one of the largest strandings was reported in Macquarie Harbour in the country involving 500 whales. More than 300 of them died on shore despite the efforts of the volunteers for days. 

While the reason behind these strandings is not fully understood, scientists suggest that these whales go off track after feeding too close to the shore. A pilot whale can grow up to 6 metres long, they are highly sociable and can follow pod mates who stray into danger. This occurs when they follow a sick, old or injured whale which is trapped ashore and the podmates flow the distress signals.

Meanwhile, other scientists believe that sloping beaches like the ones in Tasmania confuse the whales' sonar making them think they are in open waters.

This comes hours after a dozen young male sperm whales were reported dead in a separate mass stranding on King Island — between Tasmania and the Australian mainland.

The young whales' deaths may be a case of "misadventure", wildlife biologist Kris Carlyon from the state government conservation agency told the local Mercury newspaper, according to AFP.

"The most common reason for stranding events is misadventure, they might have been foraging close to shore, there might have been food and possibly they were caught on a low tide," Carlyon was reported as saying. 

"That's the theory at the moment", he added.

(With AFP inputs)