- The rugged coastline of Tasmania was littered with the
carcasses of more than 100 whales and dolphins yesterday after two separate
beachings that have baffled scientists.
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- At Sea Elephant Bay on King Island, in the north-west
of Tasmania, 55 long-finned pilot whales and 25 bottle-nosed dolphins died
when they became stranded over the weekend.
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- On Maria Island, on the east coast of Tasmania, more
than half the 53 long-finned pilot whales involved in a mass stranding
on Monday had died.
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- In New Zealand, rescuers were battling to save the survivors
among a pod of 73 pilot whales that beached on the coast. Officials said
attempts were being made at high tide to refloat 20 of the animals that
were still alive on the North Island's Coromandel Peninsula.
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- On King Island local people used tractors to tow the
mammals back into the water where rising sand threatened to suffocate them.
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- Sea Elephant Bay locator graphic
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- Zoologists said it was a mystery why the animals wash
ashore and even more puzzling was the fact that two species were involved
in the same beaching.
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- "Aristotle pondered the question (of why whales
beach) thousands of years ago and all sorts of theories come up from the
coastal topography to weather to the difficulty of navigation," said
Warwick Brennan, of the department of primary industries.
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- Killer Whales have been known to prey on whales and dolphins.
Higher levels of nutrients in the water have also been blamed. Others suggest
that the noise created by underwater installations interferes with ocean-going
mammals' sonar systems.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
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- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/11/30/whale30.
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