Tasmania's danger zone for whales

A total of 226 pilot whales have been beached on the coast of Tasmania, for the second time in a relatively short period. In 2020, the same thing happened to 500 pilot whales, not far from this incident.

The area is apparently a trouble spot for both pilot and sperm whale beachings, or "strandings", of this kind. Sam Thalmann, a marine biologist with the Tasmania Environment Department, commented on the massive challenges.

Sam Thalmann: "so we're experienced, and we've developed some very special techniques that are adapted to the local conditions. And so we're getting better all the time. It's still a very challenging response to undertake. But yeah, we- we improve every time, and it's always a challenge."

Despite the team's increased experience and expertise, with hours spent dragging the survivors out to sea, almost 200 of the stranded whales have died. The corpses of those whales are now being examined, in an attempt to fully understand the causes of stranding.

Sam Thalmann: "We're doing investigations and collecting samples that will- hopefully, help us then understand some of the mechanisms and and hopefully, potentially the processes as to why these animals strand at this location."

As pilot whales are extremely social animals, one feasible explanation for their behaviour is that they follow a group mate into danger. Older or unwell creatures are known to swim ashore and younger members may follow their lead. It's also thought that Tasmania's beaches, which descend to the waterline slowly and gently, may confuse the whales.

On this occasion, 32 of the 226 animals have survived, with specialists refloating them in deep water. While each survivor has been individually tagged, enabling them to be monitored carefully from now on, this may not be the end of the story.

Sam Thalmann: "There may be a few that may restrand, unfortunately, but we expect the, by far the- the majority, will head out to sea. But we'll certainly keep surveillance and monitoring for those ones that do restrand and then we'll assess their condition, if and when that happens."

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