Australian rescuers race to save remaining stranded whales after 200 die

On Friday, Australian rescuers battled to refloat the last surviving pilot whales from a mass stranding that killed 200 of the sea creatures on a beach in Tasmania.

Fewer than 10 of the shiny black mammals were still alive on Ocean Beach, in remote region of western Tasmania, state wildlife services said.

About 30 of the animals were released into the ocean on Thursday, but some had beached themselves again, said Brendon Clark, incident controller with the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service.

Under drizzle, marine wildlife experts began wrapping up a days-long rescue operation that started after a large pod of the animals, which are part of the dolphin family, stranded on the beach.

Three pilot whales had yet to be reached because of their remote location on the shore and the difficult tidal conditions, Clark told reporters at the scene.

"The priority still is the rescue and release of those remaining animals and any others that we identify that re-strand," he said.

Next, Clark said, comes the task of disposing of the carcases.

Wildlife workers used a fork-lift truck to drag whale carcasses along the beach, lining them up with tails pointed to the frigid ocean.

One small, young calf could be seen tied up alongside the larger adult pilot whales.

A long white line was looped around the tails of dozens of the animals to allow them to be towed en masse to disposal at sea.

Weather forecasts indicated that the "best opportunity" for the operation would be on Sunday, Clark said.

If left in shallow waters or on the beach, the carcasses could attract sharks and could also carry diseases.

Workers at Tasmanian marine farming company Petuna Aquaculture helped to release surviving whales into the sea.

"It's extremely sad to see these beautiful, intelligent animals on land where they are not to be," Depha Miedecke, general manager of strategy at Petuna, told AFP.

"We will see it right through to the end to also removing, unfortunately, the whales that have not made it."

Two years ago, Macquarie Harbour was the scene of the country's largest-ever mass stranding, involving almost 500 pilot whales.

More than 300 pilot whales died during that event, despite the efforts of dozens of volunteers who toiled for days in Tasmania's freezing waters to free them.

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