塔斯马尼亚140头鲸鱼搁浅死亡

Race to save 200 whales and dolphins after mass stranding on Tasmanian beach
澳大利亚南部约140头鲸鱼搁浅死亡

约200头鲸鱼和海豚1日晚在澳大利亚南部塔斯马尼亚州国王岛的一片海滩搁浅，至2日凌晨，已有约140头鲸鱼死亡。

　　塔斯马尼亚州《信使报》2日报道说，在搁浅的动物中，仅有54头领航鲸和6只宽吻海豚依然存活。该州专业营救人员正全力实施海滩营救，帮它们重返大海。

　　塔斯马尼亚是澳大利亚最小的州，也是澳大利亚唯一的岛州。今年1月份，曾有48头抹香鲸在塔斯马尼亚岛附近的珀金斯岛搁浅而死。去年底，塔斯马尼亚岛西部海岸的海滩也有155头领航鲸搁浅而死，另外32头领航鲸被一名渔民成功挽救。



Rescuers used jet skis and human muscle to save dozens of whales and dolphins stranded on a beach in southern Australia on Monday, officials and news reports said.
The 194 pilot whales and half a dozen bottlenose dolphins became stranded on Naracoopa Beach on Tasmania state's King Island on Sunday evening.


In distress: The pilot whales lie trapped on the sand of Naracoopa Beach on Tasmania's King Island
Strandings happen periodically in Tasmania as whales go by during their migration to and from Antarctic waters, but scientists do not know why it happens.

It is unusual, however, for whales and dolphins to get stranded together.
Chris Arthur, of Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service, said 54 whales and seven dolphins were still alive when the rescue effort began. By late Monday, 48 animals had been returned to the sea by officials and more than 100 King Island residents who had volunteered to help.
Backhoes dug trenches in the sand that allowed water to get close to the whales, as volunteers doused them with water and draped wet fabric over them to keep them cool.


Rescue effort: A woman attempts to keep a stranded dolphin alive


Mystery: Stranded pilot whales strung out along the beach on Sunday evening
Groups of volunteers used stretchers to lug dolphins into the shallows, and other officials used small boats and a jet ski to pull whales out to sea.
Rescuers were hopeful they would stay away from the shore.
'It's too early to say yet but it's been a very, very positive day,' Shelley Davison, a Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
It was not clear why the animals had beached on the island, halfway between Tasmania and mainland Australia. The Examiner, a Tasmanian newspaper, reported that the animals were caught by a very low tide.
In January, 45 sperm whales died after becoming stranded on a remote Tasmanian sandbar, even though rescuers worked for days to keep them cool and wet as they tried to move them back to the open water.
Last November, 150 long-finned pilot whales died after beaching on a rocky coastline in Tasmania. A week earlier, rescuers saved 11 pilot whales among a pod of 60 that had beached on the island state.



Sheets are draped over whales as rescuers try to work out how the survivors can be returned to the open sea