Dozens of short-finned pilot whales have washed ashore in southern India, and while 36 of the disoriented creatures have been rescued and taken back to sea, another 45 have died.
According to the Guardian and the New York Times, local fishermen first reported seeing a pod of whales swimming near the shores of Tiruchendur beach in the state of Tamil Nadu on Monday evening. They contacted police, who then informed officials at the local Fisheries Department.
Authorities and fishermen set out in boats attempting to guide the creatures back out to sea, one member of that department told the Times, but 81 of them still ended up beaching themselves on a nearly six-mile stretch of the beach. It is unclear what attracted them to the area, but the matter is being investigated by the district Veterinary Department.
Lack of a leader may have caused disorientation, experts say
More than 100 local volunteers joined members of the Fisheries Department in their efforts to rescue the whales and return them out to sea. As for those whales that did not survive the ordeal, local authorities are bringing in tractors and bulldozers to help bury them, the Times said.
“This is the first time this has happened in the area,” Tuticorin district forest officer S.A. Raju said. “The whales were being constantly pulled toward the sea but they kept coming back. The local fishermen helped. If they had not sounded the alarm, all 81 of them would have died.”
Ravi Kumar, the head government official in the port town, told the Associated Press that pilot whales typically travel in pods, and since the creatures appeared to be disoriented, the lack of a leader may have caused them to become confused, thus causing the incident.
“It appears the whales are in shock,” an unidentified scientist affiliated with the Central Marine Fisheries Institute noted, according to the Hindustan Times. A forest department worker who did not identify himself also told the publication that there were signs of injuries on the dead whales which likely came from “high intensity” underwater activity.
This activity “may have happened hundreds of kilometers away”, with tides washing the whales onto the beach, he added. The last time local residents reported seeing this many beached whales was more than 40 years ago, when 140 washed ashore in 1973, the newspaper noted.
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Feature Image: Thinkstock
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