Scientists and wildlife officials continued to search on Tuesday for what may have caused a series of mass strandings which left 169 whales and dolphins dead on Australian and New Zealand beaches in the past three days.
Authorities and volunteers worked through Monday night to save dozens of whales and dolphins after three separate beachings in Australia and New Zealand.
By Tuesday, 96 long-finned pilot whales and bottle-nosed dolphins had died after the first beaching on Sunday at King Island, midway between the Australian mainland and the southern island state of Tasmania.
Tasmanian wildlife officer Shane Hunniford said another 19 long-finned pilot whales had died in a separate beaching on Monday on Maria Island, 37 miles east of the Tasmanian capital Hobart.
He said 43 whales had beached themselves on Maria Island but officials had managed to save 24 that had been found alive.
New Zealand beaching
Across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand, a mass grave was dug on a beach at Opoutere, 60 miles east of Auckland on the North Island, for 53 dead pilot whales. Officials said 73 whales had become stranded there on Sunday, but 20 were saved.
Of those 20, more were expected to die because many were too weak to follow the others out to sea.
“Some of them had suffered pretty significantly on the beach,” New Zealand conservation department manager John Gaukrodger told reporters.
Later on Tuesday, a 30-foot sperm whale washed up on a beach west of Auckland. Officials said they were not sure if the whale had died at sea and washed up or had stranded itself. They said it was not linked to the Opoutere beaching.
Hunniford said it was unlikely there was any connection between the Australian and New Zealand beachings, with the mass strandings no more than just unfortunate coincidences.
“If you look at spaceship Earth, Tasmania and New Zealand both stick out into the Southern Ocean and that’s a playground for whales and dolphins,” Hunniford told Reuters.
“There are a number of theories. We’re not pinning our hat on any of them,” he said of the Tasmanian beachings.
Australia to create database
The Australian government also said on Tuesday that it would establish a national database on whale strandings.
“We are not sure why these tragedies happen but it’s important that we coordinate existing scientific work to establish the reasons why these creatures become stranded,” Environment Minister Ian Campbell said in a statement.
Bob Brown, leader of Australia’s Greens party, said earlier on Tuesday that ocean seismic tests for oil and gas should be stopped until the whale migration season ends.
Brown, a senator in the Australian parliament, said “sound bombing” of ocean floors to test for oil and gas had been carried out near the sites of the Tasmanian beachings recently.
He said in a statement that research data on the possible impact of such practices on marine life was inconclusive.
Sheryl Gibney, a rescue coordinator with New Zealand’s Project Jonah, said high offshore winds and plentiful supplies of mackerel close to the coast could be possible explanations.
“Normally with pilot whales, because they’re so closely socially bonded, if one gets into trouble the others are not going to leave,” Gibney said.
“Some will come in and try and assist it, they get stranded, then more will come.”
