32 Pilot Whales Stranded, 10 Die After Beaching Themselves on East Java Coast
Probollingo, East Java. At least ten out of the 32 pilot whales which were washed up on beaches near Probolinggo in East Java had died, authorities confirmed on Thursday (16/06).
Probolinggo Maritime and Fisheries Agency head Deddy Isfandi told Antara news agency 32 whales had beached themselves on a beach near the village of Randu Pitu in the Gending subdistrict on Wednesday afternoon.
The whales—found by local residents—were three to five meters in length.
“Ten of the beached whales had died. They were found on beaches near Randu Pitu, Gending, Dringu and Bentar,” Deddy said.
The agency with the help of local residents tried to rescue the whales by pushing them back into the ocean on Wednesday night, but some of the stranded whales were too weak to swim out to sea and had drifted back to shallow waters by Thursday morning.
Marine biologists from Surabaya’s Airlangga University are in the area to work out why the pilot whales had ended up washed up on the beaches.
There is speculation that the whales had beached themselves after they got disoriented by recent extreme weather changes.
“Once the scientists are done with their research, the dead whales will be buried near the beach where they were stranded,” Deddy said, adding that whales had rarely been seen in the oceans off Probolinggo.
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