All but six of more than 150 short-finned pilot whales that became stranded on a beach in Western Australia have died, despite efforts from authorities and local beachgoers to save them, officials said yesterday.
The whales became beached in Hamelin Bay, 315km south of Perth, between Thursday and Friday.
Authorities, veterinarians and locals who were visiting the beach attempted to save 15 of the migrating cetaceans in shallow waters, but only seven were able to successfully be placed back in the water.
A spokeswoman from Western Australia’s Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions said one whale beached itself again and had to be euthanized.
So far, the remaining six whales appear to have survived, although incident controller Jeremy Chick said they could attempt to beach themselves at another location.
Pilot whales, which are part of the dolphin family, weigh between 1 and 3.6 tonnes each, providing a logistical challenge to local authorities, who are now working on disposing of the carcasses.
While whales regularly get stranded on the coastal strip migrating between Antarctic feeding grounds in the south and warmer northern waters where they raise their young, the large number this time is unusual.
There was a previously recorded mass stranding in 1996, when 320 long-finned pilot whales stranded themselves just north of Hamelin Bay and died.
Locals and tourists have been warned to stay out of the water due to a likely increase in sharks attracted by the dead whales. The beach has been temporarily closed while authorities dispose of the deceased whales.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing
RSS