SYDNEY • Most of the pilot whales from a 470-strong pod found stranded off Australia's remote southern coast have died, officials said yesterday, 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, was first spotted on a wide sandbank during an aerial reconnaissance of rugged Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania state 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. By late yesterday, around 50 of the mammals had been 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 7m long and can weigh up to three tonnes, was bleak.
"As time goes on, they do become fatigued and their chance of survival reduces," Mr 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."
A rescue crew of 60 conservationists, skilled volunteers and local fish farm workers has spent two days wading in the cold shallows to free the still living creatures, using boats fitted with special slings to guide the whales back to the open ocean.
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.
"They're focused on the job - it's demanding work, some of them are up to their chest in cold water so we're trying to rotate the crews," Mr Deka said.
"Its very draining physically. It's also draining emotionally."
The whales have been found stranded up to 10km apart, and officials have now expanded their search area to see if more of the mammals are stuck nearby.
"As time goes on (the whales) do become more fatigued so their chances of survival reduces," Mr Deka said. "But we'll keep working as long as there are live animals at the site."
The stranding, about 200km north-west of the state capital 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," Professor Peter Harrison from the Southern Cross University Whale Research Group said. "Quite often we only get to really see them when there are bad outcomes, such as this stranding. We absolutely need some more investment in research to understand these whales in Australian waters."
In 1996, 320 pilot whales washed up on the coast of Western Australia, in what was then reported to be the country's biggest mass stranding. About 600 pilot whales beached in nearby New Zealand in 2017.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
