157 False Killer Whales Beached in Australia

A devastating mass stranding in a remote Australian beach saw 157 false killer whales beached in northwestern Tasmania. Just 90 still survived by the time marine conservation experts were able to access the challenging location, and officials announced Wednesday that all of them will be euthanized after attempts to refloat them were unsuccessful, the Guardian reports. They are believed to have been stranded since Monday or Tuesday. Mass strandings have happened a number of times in Tasmania in recent years, and the island in 2020 saw Australia's worst-ever mass stranding, the BBC reports.

"Our mass stranding events usually involve pilot whales. However, these are false killer whales, and it is our first large mass stranding of these animals in around 50 years," a liaison officer at the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service said. False killer whales are technically one of the world's biggest species of dolphin. It is not clear why they beached, but experts say they are suffering and that euthanasia via gunshot is the most humane way forward at this point. "The longer these animals are out stranded, the longer they are suffering. All alternative options have been unsuccessful, euthanasia is always a last resort," a veterinarian says. (More Australia stories.)