Despite the efforts of hundreds of volunteers, a pod of over 100 whales that went stranded on a beach on the southwestern Australian coast was euthanized.
On Tuesday, a pod of 97 long-finned pilot whales collected in shallow water off Cheynes Beach, around 400 kilometres (250 miles) southeast of Perth, with scores of them standing on the sand.
51 of the cetaceans had dead by the next morning.
Throughout the day on Wednesday, 250 volunteers and 100 wildlife professionals worked in vain to preserve the rest of the pod.
Dozens of people in wetsuits remained in the water, some on kayaks or surfboards, attempting to persuade the remaining pilot whales into deeper waters and ultimately out to sea.
“Volunteers and everyone attempted to get them back out into deeper water, and then they re-beached themselves”, a Parks and Wildlife Service spokesman told the media.
“From there, the vets assessed them, and it was determined that they needed to be euthanized on welfare grounds”, he added.
Peter Hartley, the incident controller, hailed rescuers for their enormous efforts in saving the whales in chilly waters.
“Probably one of the hardest decisions I’ve made in my 34 years in wildlife management — really, really difficult”, he told media on Thursday.
However, Mr. Hartley stated that the choice to euthanize the pilot whales was considered.
“We understand that whale strandings are a natural occurrence, but we gave it our all, spending the entire day in the water with those animals to give them the best chance”, he continued.
“It’s difficult to see. But this is nature, and it is a natural occurrence about which we know very little”, he added.
Scientists do not fully understand why mass strandings occur, but because pilot whales are highly friendly and can grow to be more than six metres (20 feet) long, they may follow pod-mates who stray into danger.
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