Rescue workers race against time to the rescue of trapped cetaceans in Tasmania on September 22, 2020. -

AFP

A race against time is engaged in Australia to save nearly 200 pilot whales stuck in a remote bay of Tasmania where 90 other of these cetaceans perished, the authorities affirming this Tuesday to have already released "a small number".

Scientists have indicated that two large groups of these marine mammals sometimes referred to as "pilot dolphins" stranded on sandbanks in Macquarie Harbor, a large bay closed off by a narrow pass on the wild and sparsely populated west coast. from the island.

Two thirds of animals still alive

Videos showed the animals, pilot whales, struggling to extricate themselves from the shallows.

Rescue boats were sailing around in an attempt to help them get back afloat.

In some photos, rescue workers in wetsuits appeared standing, waist-deep in water, near stranded cetaceans.

Government-employed biologist Kris Carlyon said about "a third" of the 270 animals died Monday evening, and saving the pilot whales that were still alive would be a "challenge" that could take days.

But the efforts already seemed to be paying off on Tuesday, authorities said.

"We have managed to free a small number of them that appear to have remained at sea and we are intensifying our efforts," said Nic Deka, of the authority responsible for Natural Parks.

Sixty first aid workers

Strandings of marine mammals are relatively frequent in Tasmania, but this is of particular concern given the large number of animals involved.

About 60 people, including workers from neighboring aquaculture farms, are involved in this rescue operation which is complicated by cold, humidity and an irregular tidal regime.

Carlyon said that most pilot whales, which are partially underwater, should be able to survive for several days and that this weather, unpleasant for humans, however, played in favor of these marine mammals.

Rescuers will however need to select which animals to save, focusing on those that are most accessible, and those that appear healthier.

Scientists are unable to explain with certainty the reasons for these massive strandings.

Kris Carlyon judged it possible that the group strayed into these stumbling waters getting too close to shore to hunt, or that they followed one or two animals that had stranded.

Karen Stockin, a marine mammal specialist at Massey University in New Zealand, said Tasmania has been a frequent ground for pilot whales, a species not considered endangered.

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