PERTH (AFP) – Volunteers on Monday joined rescue workers struggling to save the lives of 17 whales that survived a mass stranding on a beach on Australia's west coast, officials said.
Around 80 long-finned pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins were found beached over more than five kilometres (three miles) in Hamelin Bay, south of the city of Perth."When found this morning there were 25 whales alive, since then a further eight have died," the Department of Environment and Conservation said in a statement.
About 100 staff and volunteers were working to stabilise the survivors while awaiting equipment to help return them to the sea, spokesman Greg Mair said.
"The main strategy is to re-group the animals into one pod and hold them overnight in Hamelin Bay until day-break when they will be transported by truck to Flinders Bay for release," he said.
"This method has been chosen to ensure the whales' greatest chance of survival," he said.
"Flinders Bay provides sheltered waters and is far enough away from the stranding site to reduce the risk of the whales re-stranding."
Authorities initially thought the stranded creatures were false killer whales but later identified them as long-finned pilot whales, a medium-sized species.
The department said 19 whales of the same species stranded at nearby Busselton in 2005 and 13 were successfully returned to the ocean
The latest beaching takes the total number of whales stranded around southern Australia and Tasmania in the past four months to more than 400.
Earlier this month rescuers saved 54 pilot whales after nearly 200 of the giant creatures beached themselves on King Island off Australia's southern coast.
In November, more than 150 pilot whales died after beaching themselves on Tasmania's remote west coast and in January, 48 sperm whales died on a sandbar at the north of the island.
The phenomenon of whale strandings and the causes remain the subject of scientific debate.