BANGKALAN (INDONESIA) – Out Of 45 short-finned pilot whales that got stranded in shallow waters on Indonesia’s Madura Island rescuers were able to save only three.
A rescue effort was launched on Thursday after dozens of pilot whales beached. ” Though volunteers pushed some back out to sea, some came back here trying to find their mothers, though it turns out the mothers are dead,” East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa said.
Video footage on Friday showed whales dotted across a wide area with local residents wading in ankle-deep water, some trying to splash water on them or push them out to sea.
The governor told media that authorities planned to bury the dead whales on Saturday once the tide had receded and said two excavators had been brought in.
It is not fully understood why whales, which travel together in pods, beach themselves but they are known to follow a leader as well as gather around an injured or distressed whale.
