MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Rescued pilot whale returns to stranding point Tasmania

Rescuers on Tasmania's King Island in Australia have been trying to return a straggling pilot whale to the sea after 48 pilot whales and five dolphins were returned to sea on Sunday.

More than 150 people attempted to return a pod of about 200 pilot whales and seven bottlenose dolphins to the sea throughout Sunday after they beached themselves on Saturday night at Naracoopa on Tasmania's east coast. However 140 pilot whales died. The rescued whales were electronically tagged for tracking and there were no sign today of them returning to shore. But Chris Arthur from Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service said one pilot whale was reluctant to leave the stranding area and was trying to beach itself again. "A decision was made to bring the whale to the beach, and this morning the whale was taken back into the water and moved to an area away from surf," the spokesman said. But strong winds and surf in the area are making their job difficult. Mr Arthur says monitoring will continue in case others attempt to return. A Tasmanian marine conservation expert says the shape of the sea floor in Tasmania's north-west could be partly to blame for a spate of whale stranding. There have been four stranding events in Tasmania since November involving 400 animals. Rosemary Gales from the Department of Primary Industry and Water says experience has shown that toothed whales such as pilot or sperm whales can become disoriented in shallow water. "With the toothed whales that are happy to come close to shore, it's these really shallow sloping beaches where they almost always get caught at low tide," "So they come in and feed and then the tide goes out and they get trapped".