Almost 200 whales beached on King Island

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Nearly 200 whales and several dolphins have stranded themselves on a beach on Tasmania's King Island.

About 194 pilot whales and six or seven bottlenose dolphins began stranding on Naracoopa Beach on King Island, about halfway between Tasmania and Victoria, on Sunday evening.

Chris Arthur from Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service said about 140 of the animals had died, but hopes were high that the 50 or so remaining whales could be saved.

"While there are animals alive, there is always hope," Mr Arthur said.

"These are fairly robust animals, pilot whales. We've experienced that in the past," he said.

"DPIW (Department of Primary Industries and Water) and Parks and Wildlife mobilised staff overnight and a number of staff will be moving to the island this morning," Mr Arthur said.

Race against time

Local residents have also offered assistance to help return the creatures to the water.

Mr Arthur said it was not common to have both whales and dolphins strand simultaneously.

"I know of a number of strandings like that (with both whales and dolphins) but it is unusual," Mr Arthur said.

About 80 per cent of Australia's whale beachings take place in Tasmania.

The latest beaching takes the total number of whales stranded around the island in the past four months to nearly 400.

More than 150 pilot whales died after beaching themselves on the remote west coast in November and in January 48 sperm whales died on a sandbar off Perkins Island.



 

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[content] =>

Authorities now say 150 whales perished in the mass stranding off Tasmania's west coast over the weekend - almost double the original tally.

The Department of Primary Industries and Water says the original number of about 80 long-finned pilot whales rose to 150 after a body count on Sunday.

But department spokesman Warwick Brennan said a pod of around 30 which milling offshore was saved from stranding and shepherded out to sea by boat.

The stranded whales were discovered on a rocky area of coastline near Sandy Cape on Saturday.
 
Members of the local community and about six department staff worked in vain to save them but the whales had been badly injured by the rocks.

Mr Brennan on Sunday said the whales' chances of survival in that sort of environment were much less than if they had come ashore on a sandy area.

With one of the whales calling to the offshore pod, it was decided to move the mammal further up the beach and out of range.
 
"Our first priority was to try to stop other animals from stranding so we decided to move the animal still calling onshore further up the beach and away from the pod to see if that made any difference," Mr Brennan said.

"Unfortunately, that whale died but what happened then was those 30 whales milling around seemed more willing to move on and with a  boat in the water we managed to shepherd them out of the bay.

"Hopefully, those animals now will move on." He said that because the whales were in a remote area it was likely their carcasses would be left to break down rather than
buried.

Last week, 65 long-finned pilot whales stranded at Anthony's Beach on Tasmania's north-west coast.
 
Eleven of those whales were rescued and returned to sea. "We put some transmitters on those surviving animals and at last report they were in the Bass Strait and moving well," Mr Brennan said.
 
"So, we do know that animals that are stranded and rescued do survive - the 11 that were rescued have formed a pod and seem to be doing well."

He said whale strandings in Tasmania were becoming more common.

"We go through periods where we are dealing with strandings every 12 days. That runs from a single animal stranding to these mass strandings and, at this time of year, it seems to be especially busy."
 
Mr Brennan said one reason for the strandings could be the navigational skills of the deep water whales could go awry if they chase prey into more shallow waters.

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