Weekly news

                                      

A major rescue effort by dozens of rescuers(the majority being the public) occurred along the beach of Western Australia as 150 short-finned pilot whales became stranded.  They were spotted by a fisherman on an early Friday, this species type is known to strand in masses.  Authorities had to issue a shark warning alert for people to stay away from the area, as the dead animals may attract the sharks.  These sharks are normally up to 16 feet long and normally found in tropical and sub-tropical waters.  The cause of the beaching is unknown, however it is said that whales normally beach themselves when they are sick, injured or make navigational errors, particularly along gentle sloping beaches.

Another case of this is when; 416 pilot whales had beached themselves overnight in which 70% had died, in which they tried to save the rest of the 100  whales. Also in 1918, over 1,000 whales had beached themselves on Chatham islands, in 1996 320 long-finned whales had beached themselves along the western side of Australia.  Since, 1840 more than 5,000 whales and dolphins had beached themselves on New Zealand shores according to records.

This is an unfortunate situation to occur, and can lead to a quicker extinct species, however could a cause of this be sea pollution, in which it has caused a lack of food for the creatures of a cause of their navigation being off, and after so many years of occurrences by now a reason for these "Strandings" should of at least been found by now, as well as the government should have ensure it has enough persons to send out to assist in such an issue. This story shows the lack of a plan when such issues arise, which not only harms the environment, the animals but can also affect the people.  As these situations are regularly occurring throughout the years, there needs to be a better system in place, which can be cost effective but efficient.