50 Sperm whales die after stranding in Tasmania

29/01/2009 12:02:12 January 2009. The Sperm whales, which were mostly mothers and calves, stranded on Perkins Island, a remote island off Tasmania's north-west corner. A few of the whales survived for a day or two on the beach, but it proved impossible to help any of the animals.

Wildlife officials stated that it was very difficult for their rescue team to reach the pod due to their inaccessible location, which can only be reached by boat.

The shear size of the whales, mostly weighing between 13 and 20 tons, places a lot of pressure on their internal organs as they are not designed for supporting their weight out of the water. Sperm whales have been successfully rescued in the past, but the shallow water at the site and the weight of the animals made this outcome inevitable.

Experienced staff
Although staff from Wildlife and Marine COnservation are well experienced and equipped in whale rescues (Tasmania gets around 80 per cent of Australia's whale strandings and Tasmania is also one of three sperm whale stranding hotspots internationally. About 60 per cent of the world's recoded sperm whale strandings occur in three regions - Tasmania, New Zealand and the North Sea), succesful Sperm whale stranding rescues are not common simply because of the sheer size of the animals. Although in recent years Tasmania's Wildlife and Marine Conservation Section have developed a number of techniques that have successfully rescued two sperm whales previously at strandings. Only recently after a mass stranding of Long-finned Pilot whales, the Wildlife and Marine Section staff also fitted transmitters to 11 LFPW rescued and tracked them for several weeks to highlight the survivability of whales rescued at strandings.

Immediate priority, while all options were considered, was the welfare of the animals. So major effort was put into maintaining conditions of animals while asessing rescue options. This involves keeping animals cool during the day and minimising risk of overheating.

Unfortunately at this stranding event, because of the size of the animals, the conditions we were faced with (shallow, sand-bar riddled waters and weather conditions against us, working on a sandbar off an island making access of heavy equipment difficult, the occurrence of dead animals in front of live ones making movement of whales extremely difficult), we were unable to succesfully free any of the stranded whales.

Although a successful rescue was not possible on this occassion, we do obtain a lot of data on diet, make-up of the pod (sizes, DNA samples to understand relationship of animals, ages, sexes etc) which not only helps increase understanding of Sperm whales locally, but also feed data into global whale conservation projects to further understanding of the species and conservation efforts on a global level.

 

Mass strandings
Mass stranding of whales occur periodically all over the world, though Tasmania does seem particularly susceptible, for reasons that are not entirely understood. Around 150 long-finned pilot whales died in a mass stranding off Tasmania's west coast in November.