A pod of almost 100 whales that beached on the southwestern Australian coast died after a second day of frantic but unsuccessful efforts to rescue them, authorities said.
The pod of long-finned pilot whales stranded themselves on Tuesday on Cheynes Beach east of the former whaling station of Albany in Western Australia state, south of the capital Perth.
Despite the efforts of 100 wildlife officers and 250 volunteers wearing wetsuits to protect them against the Southern Hemisphere winter cold, 52 stranded whales died on the beach.
The remaining 45 were euthanised on Wednesday after efforts to lead them to deeper water failed. The survivors continually returned to the shallows, the Western Australia Parks and Wildlife Service said in a statement late Wednesday.
Peter Hartley, a manager of the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions who oversaw the response, on Thursday, described the decision to euthanise the survivors as “incredibly hard.”
“Probably one of the hardest decisions of my 34 years of wildlife management. Really, really difficult,” Hartley told reporters in Albany.
“It was a considered and well-thought-out decision. And you know, we thank the support of the ... veterinarians that assisted with the assessments and the advice that they gave me to make that decision,” Hartley added.
Wildlife experts speculated the beaching could indicate stress or illness within the pod, but the reasons would likely remain a mystery.
“We're getting requests from around the world from scientists wanting the video footage of them all huddled together on Tuesday,” Hartley said.
“We're going to be learning a lot about the behaviour. We're also going to be learning a great deal about the genetics, the make-up of that group, were they related?" he said.
The incident was reminiscent of one last September, when some 200 pilot whales died after a pod stranded itself on the remote west coast of the island state of Tasmania, off Australia’s southeastern coast.
The following month, nearly 500 pilot whales died after stranding themselves on two remote beaches in New Zealand.
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