Rescuers Save Whales and Dolphins Stranded on Tasmanian Beach

Rescuers have saved 54 pilot whales and six dolphins from among roughly 200 marine mammals that stranded themselves Sunday night [March 1, 2009] on King Island, which lies between Tasmania and Australia. The rest of the animals died.

Volunteers worked tirelessly alongside Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service employees to refloat the surviving whales and dolphins at high tide and return them to the sea. By the time the animals were discovered on the beach, only 63 whales and seven dolphins were still alive.

Many local people pitched in to help with the rescue efforts; one volunteer estimated that as many as 80 percent of King Island residents were on the beach working to keep the whales and dolphins cool and moist until they could be carried into the surf. Rescue volunteers also included a few tourists who were visiting the area. (Watch the video.)

While the rescuers worked to save the whales and dolphins stranded on the beach, a large pod of whales milled around offshore, raising concerns that another mass stranding might occur if the free and beached whales continued to call to each other.

"It is pretty darn sad, you can hear them crying,” said John Nievaart, a local businessman who operates Naracoopa Holiday Cottages and spoke to a reporter from the Hobart Mercury. "There are as many volunteers as whales down here. We are keeping them wet and have got them covered with anything we could get our hands on: bedspreads, blankets and towels.

"Some students from Clarendon College in Victoria managed to get a baby whale back in the water, but it came back to the pod twice,” Nievaart said. “It was heartbreaking to watch.”

Mass strandings of whales and dolphins occur worldwide, but this stranding involved an unusually large number of whales, and dolphin strandings are relatively rare. Tasmania seems to be a stranding hot spot for whales as they follow their migratory paths to and from Antarctica. More than 400 whales have stranded themselves in Tasmania over the past three months, and there have been other mass strandings in years past.

There are many theories for why whale strandings occur—from the idea that underwater seismic activity or navy sonar disrupts their internal navigation systems to the notion that the highly social creatures refuse to abandon a member of the pod that is ill or injured—but the reasons are not well understood by scientists and there is little conclusive evidence about the actual causes.

Also Read:

• Why Do Whales and Dolphins Strand Themselves on Beaches?
• U.S. Navy Allowed to Use Sonar That May Harm Whales -- About.com: Marine Life
• All About Whales and Dolphins -- About.com: Marine Life