According to local officials, hundreds of volunteers and experts took part in the rescue operation near the city of Dunsborough, the AP agency reported. They were unable to help the twenty-nine anglers, but more than a hundred animals managed to be directed to the open sea.
Rescued puffins are now being monitored by experts from both ships and planes in case they make it back to shore, Western Australia state wildlife conservation officer Pia Courtis said. “So far so good, they’re not swimming back to shore, but we’ll keep an eye on them,” she said.
Photo: Uncredited, ČTK/AP
Rescuers tend to a cetacean stranded on a beach in Albany, Australia.
Australian researcher Ian Wiese joined the hundreds of volunteers. “When I arrived, there were about 160 of them (bottlenecks – editor’s note), I think, at the shore almost out of the water, and there were several hundred people who were with the bobbleheads, trying to comfort them and watch that their heads were above water, so they can breathe,” he described. “And then after about an hour, all of a sudden, the ballheads that were more submerged and still alive came out to sea,” Wiese said. “It ended quite well today, because normally it’s more like five or six pieces out of a hundred are saved and the rest die,” he added.
Almost a hundred cetaceans formed a heart shape shortly before death
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Dead whales were pulled from the water so their bodies would not attract sharks. Scientist Holly Raudin said experts took tissue samples from their bodies to determine whether infectious diseases were behind their entanglement.
Scientists don’t know what makes cetaceans swim to the shoals where they get stranded. Extreme weather, illness, or injury can cause their echolocation to “disrupt.” Human activities can also be the cause, cetaceans can collide with a ship or become entangled in fishing gear. Some species also react negatively to powerful sonar to search for submarines. In many cetaceans, there are very strong social bonds within the herd, which sometimes cause the whole herd to become stuck with one cetacean, unwilling to leave the stranded individual.
Fishermen rescued whales stuck in their nets
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