[EN IMAGES] Australia: 200 cetaceans die stranded on a beach

About 200 pilot dolphins or pilot whales have perished following washing up on an exposed, wave-swept beach on Tasmania’s rugged west coast, Australian lifeguards said on Thursday.

Only 35 of the approximately 230 cetaceans discovered on the beach the day before were still alive, Brendon Clark, director of operations for the state wildlife service, told reporters at the scene.

Aerial footage showed dozens of shiny black mammals stranded on Ocean Beach, along a wide sandy beach in contact with the cold waters of the Southern Ocean.

“On the beach, we still have regarding 35 animals still alive and this morning the main objective will be to save them and free them,” said Mr Clark who leads the operation.

“Unfortunately, the mortality rate for this stranding is high. It is mainly due to the conditions on Ocean Beach, ”he said.

“The environmental conditions, the undertow on the exposed west coast, Ocean Beach, certainly have consequences for the animals,” he added.

Residents had covered the cetaceans with blankets and doused them with buckets of water to keep them alive following they were found on the beach.

The cetaceans were stranded near Macquarie Harbour, the scene almost two years ago to the day of another massive stranding, involving nearly 500 stranded pilot dolphins.

More than 300 of them were then dead, despite the efforts of dozens of volunteers who struggled for days in the freezing waters of Tasmania to free the animals.

Mr Clark said conditions are tougher this year than two years ago as the animals were in “much more sheltered waters”.

Rescuers have triaged cetaceans to assess which ones have the best chance of survival, he said.

“Today the focus will be on rescue operations and their release.”

The reasons for these large strandings are not fully known.

Researchers have suggested they might be caused by groups of cetaceans straying following feeding too close to shore.