Dozens of whales have been found dead on a Tasmanian beach.
Nature guide Chris Theobald travelled by boat to Bryans Beach, 140km northeast of Hobart, where he found 34 dead pilot whales on Wednesday morning.
‘It was pretty heart-wrenching. The fact that there was just so many of this species right in front of me … was pretty confronting,’ Mr Theobald told ABC.
He was on a trip with his colleague Rob Pennicott but the pair were unable to save the pod, which included calves, by the time Mr Pennicott’s son had found them.
Mr Pennicott’s son, Noah, first spotted one of the carcasses floating in the water on Tuesday which prompted the trio to go out and see if there were any more.
Nature guide Chris Theobald was travelling with his colleague Rob Pennicott, whose son Noah initially spotted the 34 dead pilot whales which ranged in age from calve to adult
More than two dozen dead whales were found beached on Bryans Beach, 140km north east of Hobart in Tasmania, on Wednesday morning
They reported the horror discovery to Marine and Safety Tasmania as they were a hazard to passing boats.
‘To me, it’s very sad. I love dolphins and whales and seals,’ Mr Pennicott said.
Tasmania’s Natural Resources and Environment Department dispatched staff, including a veterinarian, to the southern tip of the Freycinet Peninsula ‘to assess the situation and sample and measure the carcasses’.
‘It is not known why the whales stranded and is often not possible to determine,’ a spokesperson said.
Pilot whales have been known to beach themselves before and more than 200 were found washed up near Macquarie Harbour on the west coast of Tasmania last September.
Two years before that another 400 were found in the same area in a separate instance almost to the day.
Mr Theobald said that he documents cases like these to raise awareness and highlight their ‘devastating’ scale.
The environmentalist is not sure what causes the whales to beach themselves but fears some type of human-related activity could be to blame.
Beachgoers have been warned to not approach any whales they may find washed ashore, and to instead report them to the whale hotline on 0427 WHALES.
The ‘devastating’ phenomena is not uncommon and more than 600 dead pilot whales have been found beached in two separate instances in five years along the west coast of Tasmania
