Australia: Around 230 Whales Stranded On Tasmanian Beach, Rescue Efforts Underway

More than 200 whales have been founded stranded on the west coast of Australia¡¯s island state of Tasmania, with officials fearing majority of them may have already died.

About 230 whales stranded on Tasmanian beach

A pod of about 230 pilot whales became stranded on Wednesday on Ocean Beach in Macquarie Harbour. A rescue operation was launched soon after and continued throughout Thursday.

AP

¡°We¡¯ve triaged the animals yesterday as part of the preliminary assessment and we¡¯ve identified those animals that had the best chance of survival of the approximately 230 that were stranded. Today¡¯s focus will be on rescue and release operations,¡± Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service manager Brendon Clark told reporters, as per the Associated Press.

¡°We¡¯ve got approximately 35 surviving animals out on the beach ... and the primary focus this morning will be on the rescue and release of those animals,¡± Clark added.

AP

The incident comes exactly two years after the largest mass stranding in Australia¡¯s history was discovered in the same harbour. On September 21, 2020, about 470 long-finned pilot whales were found stuck on sandbars. After a weeklong effort, 111 of those whales were rescued but the rest died.

Rescue efforts continue

On Thursday morning, authorities said only 35 of the 230 whales had survived. But Clark said on Thursday afternoon that 32 of those 35 animals had been rescued.

¡°We still have three alive on the northern end beach, but because of access restrictions, predominantly tidal influences, we just haven¡¯t been able to access those three animals safely today, but they¡¯ll be our priority in the morning,¡± Clark said.

¡°We¡¯ll be transitioning to carcass recovery and disposal operations throughout the course of the day," he further added.

AP

The entrance to the harbour is a notoriously shallow and dangerous channel known as 'Hell¡¯s Gate'.

Linton Kringle, who is a local salmon farmer and helped in the 2020 rescue effort, said the latest challenge would be more difficult.

¡°Last time they were actually in the harbor and it¡¯s quite calm and we could, sort of, deal with them in there and we could get the boats up to them,¡± Kringle told AP.

¡°But just on the beach, you just can¡¯t get a boat in there ¡ª it¡¯s too shallow, way too rough. My thoughts would be to try to get them onto a vehicle if we can¡¯t swim them out,¡± Kringle added.

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