A rescue mission is under way to save a pod of long-finned pilot whales which have become stranded on a beach south of Perth, in Western Australia.

Around 80 whales were found along a 5km (three mile) stretch of beach in front of a caravan park in Hamelin Bay, a picturesque tourist destination near the Margaret River, about 200 miles south of Perth, on Monday morning.

At least 55 of the mammals were found dead this morning, and despite rescue efforts, a further eight died today.

Environment officials, whale experts and over 100 community volunteers in wetsuits are desperately trying to save the 17 which remain alive in the shallows of the sea.

Liz Carlon, who works at the Hamelin Bay caravan park, said the giant creatures were found by people taking an early morning stroll along the beach.

“I’ve never seen this sort of thing happen in real life, I’ve only seen it with photos, but I went down on the beach and had a look myself and … just held back the tears,” Ms Carlon told the Australian Associated Press.

“I thought one was still alive because there’s quite a bit of swell down here, and the dorsal fin or part of the whale had moved but it wasn’t, it was just the waves (pushing it around).”

A spokesman for the WA Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) said they were trying to herd the remaining group together to form a pod they hoped to entice back out to sea by the morning.

[The Times Online]

I have actually been out to Hamelin Bay before and wrote about it in my Western Australia Holiday Journal.  It is actually quite a scenic area that you can see pictured below:

It is sad to see these whales being stranded there.  This latest whale beaching comes on the heels of two prior beachings in the past four months in Tasmania as well.

A pod of about 50 whales, mostly mothers and calves, beached themselves on Perkins Island, north-west of Tasmania on Thursday night.

Marine biologists and Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife staff spent Friday on the island trying to save the seven whales still alive.

Two died on Friday afternoon and another three overnight.

Marine biologist David Penberton said the situation is “very negative but very positive”.

“It’s bad because there are so many animals dead but good because there are two alive who are floating at high tide,” Mr Pemberton said this morning.

“They are just bobbing in the water amongst the dead whales.”

Rescuers will now look at an action plan and work on trying to get the pair out to sea.

That is unlikely to happen until later on today or tomorrow morning.

“I can’t put a time limit on it right now, it’s a long way off because at this stage we are assessing it and looking at the best way to go about and set them out to sea.”  [AAP]

No hope ... 43 whales died in a mass stranding off the northwest tip of Tasmania / Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife

RESCUERS are battling the odds to save five sperm whales that survived a mass stranding on the northwest tip of Tasmania.

Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Liz Wren said four staff members had made their way in a dinghy to Perkins Island, near the mouth of the Duck River at Smithton, where 48 whales beached themselves last night.

“They are stabilising the five surviving whales and are monitoring them until the next high tide due this afternoon, which will give them an opportunity to rescue them,” Ms Wren said.

She said the area where the whales had stranded themselves was treacherous, with numerous sandbars making navigation difficult.

She said some of the surviving whales were up 18m long.

Department of Primary Industries and Water spokesman Warwick Brennan said sperm whales were the “lords of the sea”.

“They weigh up to 50 tonnes and have a lot of blubber so they easily overheat,” he told The Mercury. [News.com]

Just a couple of months ago 64 whales were found beached on Tasmania as well.  The first beaching happened near Stanley, Tasmania with this one happening at Perkins Island just a short distance to the west:

Locations of whales beached in Northwest Tasmania.

The Bass Strait between Tasmania and the Australian mainland is known for its treacherous currents.  I wonder if the beaching of whales that continues to happen regularly in Australia has anything to do with the current that flow through the Strait that possibly the whales use to help navigate?

Australian scientists are using satellite technology to track 11 whales that survived a mass stranding in the southern state of Tasmania over the weekend. The long-finned pilot whales were the only survivors of a pod of 64 found beached near the small town of Stanley. From Sydney, Phil Mercer reports.

Volunteers spent the weekend tending to the stranded whales, which had beached themselves near Stanley on Tasmania’s north-west coast. Fifty-three of the large marine mammals died but rescuers did manage to save 11 others.

They were taken back into deeper water. Tracking devices the size of a matchbox were attached to the dorsal fin of five long-finned pilot whales.

The devices show the whales have been swimming freely in open seas in Bass Strait, the large body of water that separates Tasmania from the Australian mainland.

Scientist Rosemary Gales hopes the global positioning technology will last.

“That is a little bit of an unknown because we haven’t done this before. It partly depends on how often the fin, the dorsal fin is out of the water because it can only transmit out of the water and then that in turn has an effect on its battery life. But we are hoping several weeks at this point,” said Gales.  [Voice of America]

Let’s hope these tracking devices do work and that these whales do no beach themselves again. 

Photo from ABC

You can see video of the rescue operation here.

You can see the full video with David Sheridan on ABC News at this link.

A LARGE chunk of something unpleasant has washed up on a New Zealand beach, and the locals are excited.

Some say the “disgusting” squarish white block, the size of a 44-gallon drum, is cheese – possibly brie, while others believe it is ambergris, or whale vomit.

And that has solved the problem for council workers who were wondering how to remove the 500kg mystery object that washed up on a beach in Wellington.

The lump washed up at Breaker Bay at the weekend and once word got out that it could be valuable ambergris – an excretion from whales that is used to make perfume – locals pillaged it, the New Zealand Press Associationr reported.

Ambergris can sell for thousands of dollars per kilogram and Wellington City Council spokesman Richard MacLean said it was like “some sort of bizarre gold rush” on the beach yesterday.

“We went out there this morning and there were people sort of lunging at it with spades and sharp implements trying to chop pieces off so they could make off with it and make their fortunes,” he said.  [News.com]

So who knew whale vomit could be made into perfume much less you can make thousands of dollars from it?