{"id":35389,"date":"2024-04-25T18:18:01","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T18:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/25\/29-pilot-whales-die-after-mass-stranding-on-australian-beach\/"},"modified":"2024-04-25T18:18:01","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T18:18:01","slug":"29-pilot-whales-die-after-mass-stranding-on-australian-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/25\/29-pilot-whales-die-after-mass-stranding-on-australian-beach\/","title":{"rendered":"29 Pilot Whales Die After Mass Stranding on Australian Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/25\/multimedia\/25xp-whales-02-kmpb\/25xp-whales-02-kmpb-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"29 Pilot Whales Die After Mass Stranding on Australian Beach\" title=\"29 Pilot Whales Die After Mass Stranding on Australian Beach\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">More than 100 long-finned pilot whales stranded along the shores of Western Australia on Thursday have returned to the ocean, while 29 died on the beach, wildlife officials said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Officials were working to remove the 29 whales that had died on the beach, Pia Courtis, a regional wildlife officer with the Parks and Wildlife Service for Western Australia, said on Thursday in a news conference posted by the agency on social media. The agency planned to take biological samples and measurements from the dead whales for research.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After marine officials and volunteers had helped the other whales back out to sea, boats were on the water and a spotter plane was monitoring the area to ensure they did not return to shore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The four pods of 160 pilot whales were spread across about 1,640 feet of beach at the Toby Inlet, near the town of Dunsborough, in Western Australia on Thursday morning, local wildlife officials said, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WAParksWildlife\/videos\/2177124185968093\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">in a statement<\/a> on social media.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Photos shared by the wildlife service on Facebook showed rows of whales lying on the shore as crowds gathered to see the mass stranding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The rescued whales had moved farther offshore on Thursday and were last seen traveling north, the wildlife department said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cSo far, so good \u2014 they haven\u2019t made it back to shore, but we will keep monitoring them,\u201d Ms. Courtis said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Officials said they did not know what had caused the stranding, which included mostly adult females and a few calves. In general, experts have theorized that the causes for such strandings may include pods of whales following a sick, or stuck, whale and getting stuck themselves; the confusion brought about by undersea noise caused by humans; or an attempt to avoid predators.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Several mass strandings have unfolded in Australia in recent years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In July, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/07\/26\/world\/asia\/australia-whales-stranded-beach.html\" title=\"\">a pod of almost 100 long-finned pilot whales<\/a> was stranded in the shallow waters off a remote beach in Western Australia. More than 50 died, and the rest were later euthanized.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">One of Australia\u2019s deadliest strandings took place in 2020, when 470 whales were beached on a coastline in Tasmania. Most of them died.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Pilot whales can grow to 24 feet in length and weigh up to 6,600 pounds. When pilot whales are stranded, rescuers are often <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/09\/23\/world\/australia\/stranded-whales-rescue.html\" title=\"\">in a race against time<\/a> because once the whales are out of the water the weight of their bodies can crush their organs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Pilot whales, which can be short or long-finned, are known for being social animals, and tend to live in large schools of hundreds of whales separated into close-knit pods of 10 to 20 individuals, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fisheries.noaa.gov\/species\/long-finned-pilot-whale\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">according to<\/a> the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Experts said the mass strandings on beaches pointed to the whales\u2019 strong social ties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/25\/world\/australia\/pilot-whales-stranded-australia.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than 100 long-finned pilot whales stranded along the shores of Western Australia on Thursday have returned to the ocean, while 29 died on the beach, wildlife officials said. Officials were working to remove the 29 whales that had died on the beach, Pia Courtis, a regional wildlife officer with the Parks and Wildlife Service [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/25\/multimedia\/25xp-whales-02-kmpb\/25xp-whales-02-kmpb-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[755,138,134,7609,9195,38623,2995],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35389"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35391,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35389\/revisions\/35391"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}