为什么鲸鱼搁浅千万不能靠近 澳大利亚出现罕见大规模鲸鱼搁浅

澳大利亚出现罕见大规模鲸鱼搁浅  

About 380 whales have died in what is suspected to be Australia's largest stranding on record
officials say.
Since Monday
hundreds of long-finned pilot whales have been found beached on Tasmania's west coast.
Rescuers had managed to save 50 by late on Wednesday
and they were trying to help the remaining estimated 30 whales.
截至周三晚些时候，救援人员已经成功解救了50头鲸鱼，目前他们正试图帮助剩下的大约30头鲸鱼。
Tasmanian government officials said the rescue effort would continue "as long as there are live animals".
"While they're still alive and in water
there's still hope for them - but as time goes on they do bee more fatigued
" said Nic Deka
regional manager for Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service.
He added the focus would now also shift to removing the hundreds of carcasses scattered along the coast. A clean-up plan is still being worked out - in the past carcasses have been buried on the shore or dragged out to open sea.
It is not fully understood why the whales became stranded. The species is known to be prone to getting beached.
The stranding
one of the largest ever recorded globally
eclipses a previous national record of 320 set in Western Australia in 1996.
The whales largely washed up on sand spits in the waters around an area called Macquarie Heads.
The first rescuers on Monday counted about 270 whales
but a helicopter on Tuesday spotted another 200 whales nearby.
More than 80% of Australian whale strandings take place in Tasmania and experts say Macquarie Heads is a known hotspot.
Tasmania's previous biggest stranding was in 1935 with 294 pilot whales. Its last mass stranding was in 2009 and involved about 200 pilot whales.
A team of about 60 people have used slings and other equipment to help pull the surviving whales off the sand banks so they are fully immersed in water.
Once the whales are "re-floated"
they are guided back into deeper waters.
Rescuers said they had escorted 50 whales back into the sea
which they deemed a "success".
Rescue efforts had been hampered by a strong tide which had brought some freed whales back to shore
they added.
"Geographically it's quite a challenging area. It's sort of inside an actual harbour so we've got several boats and hundreds of people on the ground preparing the whales in slings
" Tom Mountney
a fisherman helping with the rescue operation
told BBC World Service radio.
"They are remarkably calm. Some of them obviously
being a several ton animal
are quite strong so there's inherent danger in dealing with them. But it's as if there's a bit of a sense of them knowing what we're trying to do."
Whale experts said the surviving animals would be exhausted and weak. Pilot whales can grow up to 7m long and weigh up to three tonnes.
Without the buoyancy of the water
the whales would also be slowly crushed by the weight of their bodies
said Prof Peter Harrison from Southern Cross University's Whale Research Group.
Scientists say the reason is often unknown but they have a range of theories
including whales being lured by fish to shore and being disorientated.
Highly social mammals
pilot whales in particular are known for stranding in groups because they travel in large
close-knit munities which rely on constant munication.
Researchers say it's possible that one leading individual could have mistakenly led the whole group to shore.
Pilot whales are not considered endangered
although exact population numbers are not known. Scientists believe there are about one million long-finned and 200
000 short-finned pilot whales worldwide.