Scores of beached killer whales brought back to sea
Standing chest deep in water off a beach south of the city of Perth, the volunteers started moving the final 61 false killer whales back out to sea, as up to 50 other whales were
shepherded by nine boats some 500 metres off shore.
"They're just starting to release the animals now. It's looking good," Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) spokesperson Neil Taylor said.
Earlier in the day, Clive Johnson, who owns the Mandalay Caravan Park on Geographe Bay, said that scores of the stranded whales had been helped back into deeper waters, boosting volunteers' morale.
"They're quite buoyant in mood because they reckon they are going to save them all," Mr Johnson said after spending more than four hours in the 18-degree
water. The whales had beached near the Dolphin Bay boat ramp and another larger pod had come ashore near a caravan park on Mandalay Beach, four kilometres west of Busselton.
Up to 800 people joined the massive rescue effort, the caravan park owner said.
"Ladies and men, husbands and wives, grandmas, kids the whole community steps in," he said.
His caravan park is providing shivering volunteers with hot showers, he said.
Others in the community are bringing tea and coffee to the beach.
"The volunteers have even got those [cafe-style] gas heaters on the beach so when you come out of the water you can warm up," he said. Mr Taylor said: "It's not uncommon for this species to strand."
Western Australia is no stranger to whale strandings. On April 3 this year, 19 long-finned pilot whales beached themselves at nearby Geographe Bay.
Six died, but about 50 volunteers and CALM staff managed to herd 13 survivors out to sea.
The last mass stranding of whales on the south-west of Western Australia was in 1986 when 114 false killer whales beached themselves in a remote area near Augusta, 500 kilometres south of Perth.
Of the 114, 96 were returned to the sea by rescuers. The other 18 died.
In 1996, a pod of 300 pilot whales 200 of which had tried to beach themselves at Dunsborough, 300 kilometres south of Perth were successfully moved to deep water.
