Authorities on high alert after whale stranding on WA beach

I’m here at Toby Inlet near Dunsborough, where it’s a very different scene from just 24 hours ago, where behind me you could have seen a number of whales just off the shore in the shallow waters, and also some actually been beached on the shore and hundreds and hundreds of volunteers and professionals came down to help out turning those around. Unfortunately 28 did die, but about 130 were able to be rescued and sent back out to deeper waters. So today. The focus is on monitoring to make sure that they don’t turn back to the shallower waters and get trapped again. We know that restraining is a serious risk when it comes to pilot whales, and the aerial spotter is currently up above us cutting laps back and forth between Cape Naturalist and Cape Lewin, trying to keep an eye out for any whales that might be headed back into shore. And authorities and locals here in Dunsborough really are just crossing their fingers that yesterday’s rescue efforts weren’t in vain. And it really is a huge positive story of human intervention. A uniquely positive story I guess, on that front, where that intervention from local volunteers has actually really helped a huge number of whales and the fact that the vast majority were able to be rescued. Attentions are also turning today to the question of what causes these mass stranding events, and that has been a huge question for. A long time it’s really been a big kind of blank space in the research around Wales and fortunately in a grim silver lining, those 28 dead whales were able to be used for science. A number of marine scientists took samples from those and they said that they are hoping that those will help get us some answers as to what causes these events and maybe that will help see some interventions or ability to avoid them in future. It’s also been a point of conversation around trying to educate the public about what is best practice when it comes to turning. Wales around and helping rescue, rescue those whales. And I would say even for my part, something I learnt yesterday is that it’s really important to not send them back out individually, but to make sure to wait and send them back out as groups. Because that’s another thing that can contribute to restraining if individuals want to come back and rejoin their groups who are trapped in the shallow waters. So lots of learnings from yesterday’s event and still yeah, just really crossing our fingers that there are no further restraintings today.