Whale rescuers brace for grim scene after mass stranding
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Sixty-five long-finned pilot whales were stranded on the Tasmania's north-west coast last weekend. (ABC News)
Only a handful of whales have survived a mass stranding on Tasmania's west coast.
Between 80 and 100 long-finned pilot whales were discovered strewn across rocks at a remote inlet at Sandy Cape yesterday, just a week after 65 whales of the same species became stranded at Anthony's Beach on the state's north-west coast.
Rescue crews are expected to reach the animals later this morning.
Dr Rosemary Gales from Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service says a crew sent to investigate the stranding by helicopter yesterday found most of the whales were already dead, with only about 12 whales believed to have survived.
She says crews are bracing for a grim scene.
"It's an unlikely good prognosis for this stranding because when the animals strand on rocks they thrash a lot," she said.
"On sand they tend to lie fairly quietly but when they land on rocks and in amongst boulders they thrash, they cut themselves. There's a lot of blood loss and so it's not a great forecast.
"We know from previous experience that when pilot whales strand on rocks, which these ones have, they die very quickly."
Dr Gales says rescuers are facing the difficult task of attempting to refloat any surviving whales from the rocks.
"The sea conditions look quite favourable and the forecast is also quite favourable so if we can manoeuvre the animals out of boulders and into the open sea then we can try to facilitate a release," she said.
"We don't have boats in the area because we couldn't truck our boats in, so we'll just do what we can."
Authorities say the strandings are not related from last week's incident and involve different pods.
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