Beached cetaceans

"cetaceans"

Ha! Thanks MG! Cretaceans ranks up there with intarnation.

Rescued whales head out to sea
November 30, 2004 - 10:01AM

A group of 23 whales rescued after beaching on Tasmania's Maria Island headed safely out to sea today.

Tasmanian Department of Primary Industry, Water and Environment spokesman Warwick Brennan said all the surviving members of a pod of long-finned pilot whales which beached on the east coast island yesterday morning were returned to the water overnight.

"This morning we did an aerial survey just after first light and there's no sign of them at this stage," he said.

"In terms of getting 23 animals back in the water and moving out there, it's been a really good result. But obviously we'll be nervous for a while yet to make sure they don't re-strand."

Nineteen whales died after beaching at Darlington Bay on Maria Island, but Mr Brennan paid tribute to the many people who had helped the state's whale rescue teams.

"There were school groups and a whole lot of volunteers who got involved, the support from the community has been amazing, especially when you look at the fact we're dealing with two mass strandings at the same time."

Researchers were today taking tissue samples and measurements of the 19 whales which died.

The stranding was the second in Tasmanian waters in just 24 hours.

A mass beaching of whales and dolphins on King Island in Bass Strait on Sunday resulted in the deaths 73 long-finned pilot whales and 25 bottlenose dolphins.

In New Zealand on Sunday, a pod of more than 50 pilot whales beached at Opoutere beach on the North Island's Coromandel Peninsula.

By yesterday, only about 20 had survived, and half of those were also expected to die.

It was the largest whale stranding on the peninsula for a decade.

AAP

It's the same story up here - on Cape Cod. Although, I don't think that we've had many strandings of that many whales at once. I have been to one stranding (after they'd died). It's really sad and everyone works really hard to keep them alive. Whales are lifted to aquariums, some are hearded out to sea, some are kept out in a minimal amount of water by a human fence.....

Whale stranding

Tasmania's shores have been the sites for two large strandings of long-finned pilot whales and dolphins, resulting in up to 100 deaths.

Photographs of the strandings:
http://www.theage.com.au/photogallery/2004/11/30/1101577463147.html