Five sperm whales dead after stranding on Australian island

Sydney:  Five sperm whales have died after becoming stranded on an island off Australia's south coast.

The whales were found on a beach on the coast of Flinders Island, which is located between the Australian mainland and the island state of Tasmania, on Sunday night and were reported to Tasmania's Marine Conservation Program, according to Xinhua news agency.

Authorities arrived at the beach on Monday morning to inspect the whales and found three of them dead.

The remaining two were administered palliative care and died on Monday night.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania said in a statement on Tuesday that samples would be taken from the dead sperm whales.

"Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) staff will collect valuable samples to enable research to better understand the species and why they strand," it said.

The local council closed the beach area to the public and said in a statement that whales are a protected species and that it is an offence to interfere with a carcass.

"We also advise water lovers to be cautious, as there may be an increased shark presence in the area for a while," it said.

It is the latest in a string of whale strandings in Tasmania.

Over 30 pilot whales died after a mass stranding on Tasmania's east coast in November 2023. In September 2022 nearly 200 stranded pilot whales died on the state's west coast.

Two years earlier, in September 2020, 470 pilot whales were found stranded in the same area on the west coast in the worst mass stranding on record in Australia. Over 350 individuals died.