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The conditions that the team faced yesterday in attempts to refloat the whales proved very challenging and in fact, dangerous to our staff,
Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service Brendon Clark said in a media briefing
It’s quite rough, and the animals just can’t get past the break to get out. They just keep turning around and coming back towards the beach.”
Shelley Graham, incident controller with Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service said
We’re talking a very rough, steep, single lane road into the site. We can get four-wheel drives in there, but not a lot else.”
He added.jpg)
The moment a whale or dolphin strands, the clock of survival starts ticking,
said marine scientist Vanessa Pirotta
Following expert veterinary assessment, we have made the decision to euthanize the animals,
incident controller Shelley Graham told reportersThis is possibly the trickiest location I've seen in 16 years of doing this in Tasmania. It is extremely remote, extremely difficult to get access,
Carlyon saidWe don't yet understand why whales and dolphins strand,
she addedThe water was surging right up and they were thrashing. They're just dying, they've sunk down in the sand,
Flint said Wednesday morning
The longer these animals are out stranded, the longer they are suffering. All alternative options have been unsuccessful,
Carlyon saidWe have been out in the water this morning and have relocated and attempted to refloat two whales but didn't have success as the ocean conditions weren't allowing the animals to get past the break. The animals are continuously restranding,
Graham said in a statementThere are little babies. Up one end, there's a lot of big ones. It's sad,
she addedOften we don't get to the bottom of the ultimate cause,
said Carlyon
Initial assessments indicate that refloating the whales will be difficult due to the inaccessibility of the site, ocean conditions and the challenges of getting specialized equipment to the remote area,
department spokesman Brendon Clarke told media
Our mass stranding events usually involve pilot whales. However, these are false killer whales, and it is our first large mass stranding of these animals in around 50 years,
Brendon Clark from Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) said on WednesdayThe team on the ground will conduct post-mortem investigations and sampling of deceased animals in an attempt to determine a reason behind the stranding,
Mr Clark saidThese are large animals potentially in their death throws, and they could be writhing and moving around on beaches,
Mr Clark saidWe don’t yet understand why whales and dolphins strand. Tasmania has proven to be a hotspot location for seeing mass strandings like this. Perhaps it’s the geographical location, which makes it difficult to navigate around. This is just one of many theories that may help understand why this happens.”
She addedIt may be a case of the carcasses remaining in situ and letting nature run its course,
he saidAt this stage, we do not know why these animals have stranded,
he saidTo try to re-float the animals directly back into that surf would be challenging, and then, of course, that would also present some enormous safety risks for our staff and personnel,
Clark said