Perth - About 80 whales and dolphins were stranded Monday on a remote southwest Australian beach, and most of them died before rescuers could reach them, conservation officials said.
Volunteers and government officers struggled to save about 25 that were being battered by rough seas in Hamelin Bay in Western Australia state, the state Conservation Department said in a statement. The rescuers were trying to stabilise the mammals before freeing them from the sand and guiding them back to sea, it said.
It was the latest mass beaching of whales in Australia. Strandings happen periodically in Tasmania, in the southeast, as whales pass 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 become beached together.
The department said the group of false killer whales and bottlenose dolphins became stranded early Monday morning on a stretch of beach about 4 miles (6 kilometres) long.
"Our main priority is to ensure the welfare of the remaining alive whales before we herd them back out to sea," Greg Mair, the departmental officer leading the rescue said in a statement.
Returning the whales to the sea depends on the conditions and the strength of the animals, he said, adding that current "ocean conditions are quite dangerous with rough seas and large waves."
Earlier this month, 194 pilot whales and seven dolphins became stranded on a sandbar in Tasmania and only 54 whales and five dolphins were able to be saved. In January, 45 sperm whales died after becoming beached on a different Tasmanian sandbar. Last November, 150 long-finned pilot whales died after beaching on a rocky coastline one week after a pod of 60 also came ashore on the island state. Only 11 were rescued. - Sapa-AP