SAD SIGHT: Rescuers do what they can to help the dolphins that had not perished on the beach. About 67 pilot whales and 20 dolphins were stranded. Picture: MARGARET BARNES
ALMOST 90 whales and dolphins have died in mass strandings on King Island.
On Friday morning locals found 13 dolphins beached at Quarantine Bay on the island's north-west coast, while on nearby New Year Island a stranding of about 67 pilot whales and 20 dolphins went undiscovered until yesterday.
King Island Parks and Wildlife Service head ranger Shelley Davison said eight surviving dolphins on Quarantine Beach were returned to the water on Friday afternoon thanks to the help of about 20 volunteers.
But yesterday King Island resident Guy Barnes was horrified to find the second much bigger stranding while on a dive trip to New Year Island.
Almost all the whales, including a small number of calves, were dead when Mr Barnes arrived.
Mrs Davison said parks staff and two boatloads of volunteers arrived on New Year Island around 3pm yesterday to launch a rescue mission.
Six dolphins were saved, but the four living pilot whales died before they could be returned to the water.
Mrs Davison said it was likely the separate strandings happened at the same time, given the poor condition of those on New Year Island.
"We think they may have been there for two nights," she said.
Mrs Davison praised the efforts of volunteers who helped rescue the dolphins that could be saved. Some involved in the rescues were distraught by the number of whales and dolphins that died.
"It's really emotional," she said. "We had a pretty good outcome with the ones that were alive."
Staff from the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment marine branch visited King Island to perform autopsies and take samples.
King Island whale rescue group member Margaret Barnes said the stranding on New Year Island was confronting for volunteers.
"[The whales] were screaming for their calves which were dead, it was all pretty bad," she said.
It is not known why the whales and dolphins beached themselves.
"That's part of the reason why we take so many samples, so we can look at them over time and try to piece together what has happened," Mrs Davison said.
The North-West Coast is a notorious trap for whales and dolphins, with a disproportionate number of the state's strandings occuring there.
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