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Hopes fade for last whale stranded in Australia
AP - Sunday, January 25
HOBART, Australia - The last survivor of a pod of 45 sperm whales that became stranded on a remote Australian beach is trapped behind the bodies of its family group and is likely to die, rescuers said Sunday.
"We are administering palliative care," said Chris Arthur, a spokesman for the Parks and Wildlife Service in Tasmania state.
The pod became stuck on a sandbar just off the island state's northwest coast on Thursday, and officials rushed to the site to help at least seven survivors by pouring water over the semi-submerged mammals to keep them cool and trying to come up with a plan to free them.
But survivor numbers have dwindled each day.
Arthur said just one remained alive Sunday morning, and it was trapped behind several other dead ones.
Ironically, the thick blubber that insulates the animals when they swim in deep Antarctic waters has posed one of the greatest dangers.
"The blubber, which is a real asset to them in the deep cold waters, just really makes them heat up quickly," Warwick Brennan, another wildlife services spokesman, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
The animals _ the largest up to 60 feet (18 meters) long and weighing up to 22 U.S. tons (20 tons) each _ were too heavy to lift free of the sandbar, Arthur said.
Strandings happen periodically in Tasmania, which whales pass on their migration to and from Antarctic waters.
Scientists don't know why the creatures get stranded, but they suspect in this case that rough conditions in the narrow channel between the island and the mainland had churned up sediment in the water and confused the pod's sonar navigation.
Last November, 150 long-finned pilot whales died after beaching on a rocky coastline in Tasmania despite frantic efforts to save them. A week earlier, rescuers saved 11 pilot whales among a pod of 60 that had beached on the island state.
Sperm whales become stranded less often than other species because they spend most of their time in deep waters, away from the coastline. But scientists say ocean currents and feed stocks have brought them closer to shore.
Officials have said the carcasses would be left in place to rot or be eaten by scavengers.
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