Stranded Whales Die

150 whales became stranded off the coastline of Southern Australia and died before the rescue crew could save them

Officials from Tasmania state's Parks and Wildlife Service on Sunday rushed in four-wheel-drive vehicles to the remote site at Sandy Cape after the long-finned pilot whales were spotted by air a day earlier.

A helicopter crew that arrived late on Saturday found about a dozen of the whales injured but alive, said Warwick Brennan, a spokesperson for the service.

Other officials and volunteers arrived by four-wheel-drive vehicle yesterday and worked frantically to save those remaining, but they died, Brennan said.

The coastline is strewn with reefs and jagged rocks, making it much more dangerous for the stranded whales than if they had landed at a sandy beach, said Rosemary Gales, another wildlife service official.

Officials in small boats steered about 30 whales that were part of the same pod as those stranded away from the bay where they went ashore. They were apparently responding to cries of distress from an injured whale and were in danger of becoming stuck too...