Almost 200 whales stranded on Australian island

Reuters 1 Mar 08;

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Almost 200 pilot whales and a small number of dolphins have beached themselves on an island near Australia's southern state of Tasmania, wildlife officials said Monday, with many already dead.
Rescuers were on their way to Naracoopa beach on King Island, between Tasmania and the Australian mainland, where around 194 pilot whales and seven dolphins beached late on Sunday, said Chris Arthur, from Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service. Arthur said around 140 of the whales had already died, but authorities and civilian wildlife rescuers were confident the remaining mammals could be saved, with weather conditions calm.

"These are fairly robust animals, pilot whales," Arthur told Australian state radio. "While there are animals alive, there is always hope," he said.

The latest mass beaching takes the number of whales stranded in Tasmania's northwest over the past three months to more than 400, and follows the deaths of 48 sperm whales in January.

Pilot whales are among the smaller whales, typically up to about 5 meters (16 feet) in length and dark with a grey underbelly.

Mass strandings of whales occur periodically in Australia and New Zealand for reasons that are not entirely understood.

Theories include disturbance of echo-location, possibly by interference from sound produced by human activities at sea.

(Reporting by Rob Taylor, editing by James Thornhill)

Human factor suspected in mass beaching of whales in Australia
Lewis Smith, Times Online 2 Mar 09;

Conservationists are demanding an immediate and thorough inquiry into what they say is the suspicious stranding of 200 whales and dolphins.

Fears that the mass stranding on an Australian beach on Sunday was caused by human disturbance were raised because two species of cetacean came ashore simultaneously.

Most of the animals were pilot whales, but a number of bottlenose dolphins were also among the pod.

Residents joined wildlife workers to spend hours keeping the surviving animals wet and cool before they could be lifted, pushed and hauled back into the water.

The rescue operation succeeded in saving 54 pilot whales and five dolphins on Naracoopa Beach on King Island, Tasmania. Most of the beached animals were dead by the time anyone could reach them.

Wildlife workers and volunteers were delighted to have saved more than a quarter of the whales and dolphins, but they were maintaining a watch on beaches in the area for fear that some of the creatures might come ashore again during the next high tides. Officials of the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service were trying to discover last night why 192 whales and seven dolphins had beached themselves but said that the stranding, like many others before, was likely to remain a mystery.

Mark Simmonds, of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and an expert on cetacean strandings, said that two species coming ashore together was enough to arouse suspicions of a human factor, including the use of sonar by the military.

“To get more than one species is unusual,” he said. “When you do, you get more suspicious because it means that they might have been driven. It does make us worried. We are certainly going to call for a very thorough investigation.”

Military sonar has been strongly linked to several strandings, particularly of deep-diving species such as pilot whales. Other human noises that could have frightened or disorientated the animals include industrial activities.

Another prime suspect among the possible causes is climate change, which scientists fear may be causing whales and dolphins to get close to unfamiliar coastlines.

Several species have migrations that take them close to the Tasmanian shore - 80 per cent of Australian strandings take place in Tasmania - and changes in water temperature caused by climate change could be driving them off their usual routes.

However, Dr Simmonds accepted that an explanation for the stranding could equally well be natural, such as the marine animals making a simple navigational error.

Factors leading to natural strandings are little understood but researchers believe that they are likely to be linked to group behaviour.

“Pilot whales are one of those species that do tend to feature in mass strandings, which is probably because they are a very social species,” Dr Simmonds said. “Out at sea there's nowhere to hide but behind each other, so when one gets into trouble the others follow.”

It is the fourth time in the past few months that a large stranding has taken place on Tasmania's coast. Chris Arthur, of the Parks and Wildlife Service, said: “This last summer has been a particularly demanding one.”

Ninety-seven animals of two species - long-finned whales and bottlenose dolphins - were stranded in November 2004 on King Island.