(all the pictures courtesy of Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service)
A pod of almost 48 Sperm Whales have stranded two days ago on a sand bar at Perkins Island near Smithton, on Tasmania's north-west coast. During these two days Australian rescuers have tried to save 12 of them that were still alive, but the sperm whales are simply too big and heavy to be moved and when the sun's out the animals just heat up incredibly quickly, the blubber, which is a real asset to them in the deep cold waters, just really makes them heat up quickly, on top of that the site of the stranding can only be reached with boats and during the high tide making everything more difficult.
Therefore one by one the sperm whales died till this morning when the last one passed away leaving the rescuers with a horrible sense of powerlessness.
This kind of stranding it's not new at all, the following links leads to other SeaWayBLOG articles about recent strandings:
