Australia begins disposal of 350 dead whale carcasses in clean-up mission

On September 25, Australian wildlife officials started disposal of nearly 350 dead pilot whales after hopes of rescuing more were shattered after days of the tiresome rescue missions Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania state. Tasmania state Parks and Wildlife Service officials said in a statement that as many as 108 whales were saved after they got stranded on a sandbar at Australia's southern island. 

Incident Controller and Parks and Wildlife Service told the local Australian news outlets that hundreds of long-finned pilot whales swept dead on the coasts in Australia’s largest beaching. By September 25, the authorities had managed to rescue some 50 while efforts to save the estimated 30 whales remaining were ongoing. 

Marine scientist Vanessa Pirotta said in an AP report that pilot whales "do have a very strong social system, these animals are closely bonded and that’s why we have seen so many in this case unfortunately in this situation."

"Because they are wanting to return back to the pod, they might hear the acoustics for the vocalizations of the sounds that the others are making, or they’re just disoriented and in this case extremely stressed, and just probably so fatigued that they in some cases don’t know where they are," she added.

Regional manager for Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service, Nic Deka, told UK’s BBC sources that the Tasmanian government plans to continue the rescue effort for as long as there were alive species in the water. But as more time passes, he added, the fishes become more fatigued. In a clean-up mission, the authorities were now disposing of the hundreds of dead whale carcasses scattered along the Macquarie heads with the assistance from the aquaculture companies. The dead bodies of the fishes were separated into groups and enclosed with water booms, according to an emailed statement by Rob Buck. 

David Hocking, a marine mammal scientist at Monash University in Melbourne said, "Pilot whales form strong family bonds and can travel in groups of up to 1,000. If one or a few animals get themselves into trouble, they put out a distress call.

“Rather than running away, their instinct is to come together as a group because they have safety in numbers. But that means a few animals getting into trouble means they call more animals into that same area." Hocking told AP sources.

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"If they are still alive and still in water, there is certainly hope for them, but as time goes on they do become more fatigued and so their chances of survival reduces,"  Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service Manager Nic Deka was quoted by AP as saying. 

Stranded in shallow inlet by a sandbar

Marine conservationists were set to launch a massive rescue mission to save a pod of over 275 whales stranded at Macquarie Harbour, in Tasmania earlier last week. The pod was located swimming in the shallow inlet by a sandbar inside Macquarie heads, west of Hobart near Strahan. Sources of local ABC Australia confirmed that the World Heritage Cruises’ member named Guy Grining flew over the Macquarie in a helicopter and spotted the stranded fishes, desperately swimming for a way out, stuck on various sandy shoals. Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment and local police scrambled to the ocean and launched a rescue mission. 

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(Images Credit: AP)