Australia has just made a sad discovery on one of its beaches. More than 150 dolphins failed on the island of Tasmania, announced environmental protection agents, deploring the deaths of several dozen of them on Wednesday.
“About 90” of these 157 specimens were alive this Wednesday morning, according to these members of the local environment department, indicating that it seemed to be a bench of false orcas, large predatory dolphins.
A “complex” rescue operation
These cetaceans failed in the space of 48 hours near Arthur River, a sparsely populated locality in northwestern Tasmania, island located in the south-east of Australia. In photos broadcast by the authorities, dozens of brilliant black dolphins appear to be extended on the sand along a beach at low tide.
The rescue operation “is complex because of the inaccessibility of the site, the oceanic conditions and the difficulty in transporting equipment specialized in this remote place,” explained the department.
Brendon Clark, a local wildlife protection agent, said on Wednesday that it would be difficult to restore the cetaceans still alive, which can weigh more than a ton. When animals run aground, “euthanasia is an option to reduce suffering as much as possible and we have veterinarians on site to help enlightened decisions if necessary,” he said. According to him, these animals have been the first to have failed in this part of Tasmania for fifty years.
Increasingly frequent massive failures
Falus orcas can measure up to six meters long. Like other delphinids, these cetaceans also called false shoulders are gregarious animals which often form benches of 50 or more individuals.
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Massive failures of cetaceans are more and more frequently observed around the world, a phenomenon whose causes have not been scientifically established to date but which could be linked to human activity. In Australia, dozens of pilot dolphins had thus failed on a beach at the southwest end of the country last April.
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