Australian wildlife officers made the difficult decision to submit to euthanasia 90 killer whales on a remote beach in Tasmania, after the difficult conditions of the ocean have made it impossible to float.
More than 150 whales were found stranded near the Arthur River on the west coast of the island on Tuesday, according to the Tasmania Natural Resources and Environment Department.
On Wednesday morning, only 90 were still alive, and although rescuers tried to return two of them to the sea, the wind and the hectic sea made them immediately return the earth.
“The sea is very agitated and the animals can’t go out to leave. They are always going around and returning to the beach, ”explained Shelley Graham, controller of incidents of Tasmania Parks & Wildlife Service.
Aerial images showed the whales scattered along the beach, some semi-looked into the sand, while others were trapped in shallow waters near rocky outcrops.
The last time so many false orcas rocked in Tasmania was 50 years ago, in June 1974, when a group of 160 to 170 whales was found on Black River beach on the north coast of the island. It is not known how many survived.
In the latter case, the authorities said the decision was made to euthanize the animals to minimize their suffering. After many hours on the beach, the animals were disoriented and distressed.
In recent mass set operations, machinery has been used to move the stranded whales to more isolated areas so that they can be stabilized in the water before they are released.
But it was not possible to send equipment to the remote and inaccessible site, Brendon Clark, a binding officer for the Tasmania parks and wildlife service, said.
The population had already been warned to stay away from the last one, for their own safety, because the whales are large, weighing between 500 pounds and about three tons, said Clark.
Whales are a species protected in Tasmania, even when killed, and interfering with a housing is an offense.
Animal behavioralists and marine scientists say that the survival rates of stranded whales are low and that animals “can only survive about six hours on land before they begin to deteriorate.”
“It is not always clear because the whales are stuck, but they have been stranded for many centuries in the back of the world, including dough,” said Dr. Angus Henderson of the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies of the University of Tasmania.
“There are many natural causes, such as animals that are carried away by the disease, get lost or disoriented, as well as other factors, such as climate and magnetic anomalies … This is the third mass enclosure in five years on the western coast. From Tasmania, but it is not yet known if it is a pattern with a discernible cause. ”
Translated with the free version of the translator – Deepl.com
