More than 150 whales have become stranded on Tasmania’s remote West Coast, with authorities racing against time to mount a rescue operation.
Initial assessments from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment on Wednesday morning indicated that 136 of the 157 false killer whales stranded near Arthur River were still alive.
Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service liaison officer Brendan Clark later said the number had been revised to about 90, many of which have endured “a number of tidal cycles” over a 24- to 48-hour period.
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“Wildlife crews arrived on site this morning and are currently assessing animal welfare and options for rescue,” he said.
“However, initial assessments indicate that refloating the whales will be difficult due to the inaccessibility of the site, ocean conditions and the challenges of getting specialised equipment to the remote area.”
This incident marks the first large-scale mass stranding of false killer whales in nearly 50 years.
The last recorded event occurred in June 1974 at Black River Beach near Stanley, involving a pod of a similar size.
The cause of the latest stranding, reported to authorities late on Tuesday evening, remains unknown.
“The team on the ground will be conducting post-mortem investigations and sampling of deceased animals in an attempt to determine some reasoning behind the stranding,” Clark said.
“The department, NRE TAS, has a comprehensive cetacean incident manual which has undergone extensive review since 2022 and the 2020 mass strandings and which gives us a guide during these stranding responses.”
“As with any whale stranding, euthanising is available as an option to minimise suffering and we do have vets on site to help make informed decisions if that is deemed necessary.”
“The likelihood of re-floating off this particular beach is going to be challenging.”
