Mass Beaching of Whales in Tasmania

[Foggy]

Heard on the radio this am about a mass beaching of dolphins and whales?

Anyone got any info?

This comes on top of the slaughter by fishermen of 2 of that pod who saved those swimmers from a gt. white!!

What a sad week this is turning into, and its only monday!

Paul

[Foggy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/4051053.stm

More than 100 whales and dolphins have died in two separate beachings in islands off Tasmania in Australia.
Ninety-seven pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins died off King Island over the weekend, and several others have died off Maria Island.

Volunteers have been trying to prevent others from suffering the same fate, by carrying them back to deeper waters.

Scientists have flown in to try to establish why so many of the mammals have died.



........Oh Poo!

Paul

[Bantam]

I think there was talk recently about the new Yank subs causing problems for Whales and Dolphins because of the way their sonar works?

Wouldn't surprise me if one of those was nearby.

Edit;


Evidence that noise from human sources harms whales and other marine mammals is overwhelming, scientists say.

The International Whaling Commission, holding its annual meeting in Italy, says military sonar and oil and gas exploration are particular threats.

The numbers of beached whales found may seriously underestimate the numbers actually killed by sound.

They believe special protected areas could help to save marine mammals from being harmed in this way.

A report by the IWC's scientific committee says there is "compelling evidence" that entire populations of marine mammals are at potential risk from increasingly intense man-made underwater noise. 'Great concern'



The committee says in its report: "The weight of accumulated evidence now associates mid-frequency military sonar with atypical beaked whale mass strandings.

"The evidence is very convincing and appears overwhelming. Assessments of stranding events do not account for animals that are severely affected or died, but did not strand."

Earlier this month about 200 melon-headed whales headed into shallow water off the coast of Hawaii, with one dying, during US and Japanese naval exercises.

One possible cause under investigation is mid-frequency sonar. The report also expressed "great concern" over the impacts of oil and gas exploration on large whales.

It mentioned an incident in 2002 in which humpback whales were stranded off the coast of Brazil in unusual numbers during a submarine oil and gas survey that generated intense sound pulses.

Grey whale numbers are particularly low

The committee called for "strong, prompt action", especially for endangered whale populations like the western North Pacific grey whales. Only 100 animals, among them 23 females of reproductive age, are known to exist.

Global conservation campaign group the World Wildlife Fund has urged the Royal Dutch Shell energy group to suspend its Sakhalin oil project in the Russian Far East after the IWC called it a threat to the survival of the grey whales in the area.

The scientific committee urged investigation into setting up marine protected areas to keep marine mammals safe from underwater noise.

Last October, the US Natural Resources Defense Council said the US Navy had agreed to cut its use of a controversial low-frequency sonar system which could be harming marine mammals. The journal Nature said the sonar signals might cause bubbles in the animals' tissue, in much the same way as divers can suffer decompression sickness known as "the bends".

[Mr T.]

Scientists baffled as whales die in their hundreds
By Peter Shadbolt in Sydney and Paul Chapman in Wellington
(Filed: 30/11/2004)

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.

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.


Pilot whales and dolphins washed ashore on Sea Elephant Bay beach

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.

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.

On King Island local people used tractors to tow the mammals back into the water where rising sand threatened to suffocate them.


Sea Elephant Bay locator graphic

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.

"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.

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.

[Gunna Do]

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_national...%3fformat=html.

Monday night 74 pilot whales were beached on a remote beach in the Corramandel Penninsula,
Volunteers came to the rescue and after 24 hrs managed to refloat 18.

And on Aucklands West coast a huge Bull Sperm Whale beached on Tuesaday afternoon, But sadly passed on.

We have had a lot of undersea earthquakes in the last month, Could this be upsetting the migratory patterns ???
Just a thought
Steve

[rickles23]

I have worked with pilot whales and dolphins and our group reached the same idea.
It is well known that explosions and sonar will rupture the eardrums

Regards
Rickles23