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| A handout photo taken on Sunday shows the Parks and Wildlife Service tagging deceased sperm whales on Ocean Beach near Strahan on Tasmania's west coast. Wildlife staff are battling wet and windy conditions as they try to save four sperm whales stranded in shallow water. (AFP Photo/Tasmania Parks and Wildlife) |
Sydney.Rescuers were racing against the clock on Monday to save two huge sperm whalesstranded on a Tasmanian sandbank after 22 others died, the Parks and WildlifeService said.
Marinemammal specialists were on site in Macquarie Harbour at Strahan on Tasmania’snorthwest coast, but the rescue bid was hampered by rough weather.
Twenty-twoof the whales — each weighing two tonnes and up to 12 meters long — washedashore on Saturday at Ocean Beach near Strahan, and all of them died.
Four otherscame into the harbor and became stranded on a sandbank. Two of these weresuccessfully refloated and swam back out to sea, but the other two remainstuck.
Rescuerssaid two minke whales also got into trouble nearby and died.
TasmanianParks and Wildlife incident controller Chris Arthur said the sperm whales wereso big that they could not simply be pulled into deeper water by volunteers,instead requiring a more complicated rescue operation.
“Aspecially-developed net attached to two boats has been designed to slip under awhale, enabling it to be hauled from immediate danger,” he said.
“Thismethod can be used for large animals and is very effective.”
Butconditions were worsening, with high winds and seas, and attempts to refloatthe whales had to be postponed until Tuesday.
“Althoughwe were unable to move the surviving whales into open water today, we arehoping conditions will improve over the next few days,” Arthur said, addingthat the whales were tired but still flapping their fins and blowing water.
“Theweather conditions are against us at present, but managed properly, theseanimals can survive at least a few days.”
Anotherproblem in Strahan is its treacherous narrow channel, known as Hells Gates,through which the whales must pass to get back into deeper water.
“Pushing alarge whale against sea surging through the 25-meter passage is like pushing acork into a bottle,” added Arthur.
But heexpressed confidence given that seven sperm whales were saved after a similarstranding in the harbor in 2007.
The Parksand Wildlife Service said that samples had been taken from the 22 dead whales,which will remain on the beach until they decompose because they are too largeto move or bury.
Explainingwhy they died, Arthur said: “People seem to forget that these animals breatheair. When they are caught in the surf and they are being rolled around, theyare in the sand — they can’t get their blowholes up to get oxygen.”
Whalebeachings are relatively common in Australia and they usually occur in thesummer months, particularly around Tasmania, but scientists do not know whythey happen.
Agence France-Presse
