Stories tagged with whales
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Thirty Whales Beached off Phuket
Thirty false killer whales were found beached near the Thai resort island of Phuket, but most were saved by staff at nearby hotels and local residents, a marine official reported.
The whales were up to 4.2 metres long, swam onto the beach on the Racha Island in the Andaman Sea, according to Wannakiat Thubthimsang, the director of Phuket’s Marine Biological Center.
Island residents and hotel staff joined forces to carry the whales back into the rough sea waters, Wannakiat told the AFP.
Due to the rough seas, ten of the whales had to be moved by truck and then carried to another beach about a kilometre away, where calmer waters made the rescue effort feasible.
"One of them died from shock," said Wannakiat.
Scientists who were contacted said they couldn’t be sure why the whales swam ashore.
"They may have run aground because of the strong wave, or they could have been misled by their leader's sonar signal," he added. "It's not the first time this has happened, but this is a very large number."
False killer whales are considerably smaller and less aggressive than the Orca, which is a distant relative. They are not listed as a threatened species.
Like Orcas, false killer whales are classified by scientists as dolphins rather than whales. They are quite social by nature and are known to stand themselves in situations similar to this recent occurrence in Thailand.
Posted by: Andrew on 02 Jul 2008, 21:15