Mass Whale Stranding In Australia
Volunteers and government officers struggled to save 17 long-finned pilot whales that were being battered by rough seas in Hamelin Bay in Western Australia state, the state Conservation Department said in a statement.
It was the latest mass beaching of whales in Australia. Strandings happen periodically in Tasmania, in the southeast, as whales pass during their migration to and from Antarctic waters, but scientists do not know why. It is unusual, however, for whales and dolphins to become beached together.
The department said the group of whales and bottlenose dolphins became stranded early Monday on a stretch of beach about 4 miles (6 kilometers) long.
Department spokesman Greg Mair said the 17 survivors, all whales, will be shifted by truck at daybreak Tuesday to nearby Flinders Bay and helped out to sea...
