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Scores of stranded whales die despite rescue bid
Source: Agencies |
November 18, 2011, Friday
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RESCUERS have been unable to save the last surviving sperm whale from a mass strandings in Australia and New Zealand during which 91 whales died over the weekend.
Though whale strandings are relatively common, the past few days have been particularly tough for conservation authorities.
In all, 24 sperm whales and two minke whales died in a stranding on and around remote Ocean Beach in Tasmania. In an equally remote location, 65 pilot whales died at the tip of Farewell Spit on New Zealand's South Island.
Australian authorities were trying to guide the last surviving sperm whale to open water from Macquarie Harbour when it died on Wednesday. They had earlier managed to free two sperm whales from the harbor.
"We did everything possible to save this whale," said Liz Wren, a spokeswoman for the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service. She said the whale appeared to be swimming strongly before it died.
Paradoxically, mass-strandings in most cases appear to be triggered by the survival strategy of a single whale, according to Anton van Helden, a marine mammal expert at New Zealand's Te Papa museum.
When a whale is sick or injured, it will often seek shallower water to recover, he said, so it does not have to swim so far to reach the surface and breathe.
Unfortunately, he said, a sick whale can be beached as it tries to recover. It will then send a distress signal to other whales in its pod and they will join it as part of the group's strong social cohesion.
"The key thing about life in the ocean is that whales are highly dependent on one another to deal with any ailment," van Helden said.
He said Farewell Spit provides a "classic whale trap" because it has long, shallow beaches that can confuse whales into thinking they are in open ocean, as well as large tidal variations which can strand whales.
He said one of the worst mass-strandings in New Zealand occurred in 1918 when about 1,000 pilot whales were beached on the Chatham Islands.
Though whale strandings are relatively common, the past few days have been particularly tough for conservation authorities.
In all, 24 sperm whales and two minke whales died in a stranding on and around remote Ocean Beach in Tasmania. In an equally remote location, 65 pilot whales died at the tip of Farewell Spit on New Zealand's South Island.
Australian authorities were trying to guide the last surviving sperm whale to open water from Macquarie Harbour when it died on Wednesday. They had earlier managed to free two sperm whales from the harbor.
"We did everything possible to save this whale," said Liz Wren, a spokeswoman for the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service. She said the whale appeared to be swimming strongly before it died.
Paradoxically, mass-strandings in most cases appear to be triggered by the survival strategy of a single whale, according to Anton van Helden, a marine mammal expert at New Zealand's Te Papa museum.
When a whale is sick or injured, it will often seek shallower water to recover, he said, so it does not have to swim so far to reach the surface and breathe.
Unfortunately, he said, a sick whale can be beached as it tries to recover. It will then send a distress signal to other whales in its pod and they will join it as part of the group's strong social cohesion.
"The key thing about life in the ocean is that whales are highly dependent on one another to deal with any ailment," van Helden said.
He said Farewell Spit provides a "classic whale trap" because it has long, shallow beaches that can confuse whales into thinking they are in open ocean, as well as large tidal variations which can strand whales.
He said one of the worst mass-strandings in New Zealand occurred in 1918 when about 1,000 pilot whales were beached on the Chatham Islands.
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