More than 50 pilot whales died after they initially came ashore at Cheynes Beach, south-east of Perth, earlier this week.
Volunteers yesterday managed to keep the remaining 45 alive during the day before they were able to move them into the water.
“Just the sound of them, like they were in distress like you could see their eyes, they were looking at you, you knew something was seriously not right,” a witness told 9News.
The survivors, however, stranded themselves again further along the peach, Parks and Wildlife WA said on Facebook.
“Sadly, the decision had to be made to euthanise the remaining whales to avoid prolonging their suffering,” the organisation said overnight.
“It was a difficult decision for all involved however the welfare of the whales had to take precedence.”
Parks and Wildlife Services regional manager Peter Hartley earlier said some of the animals were not showing great signs.
“There’s nothing we can do, we will have to let them beach and then we re-assess them,” Hartley said.
Rare drone vision of the pod pre-stranding is helping experts trying to work out why beachings occur.
Marine biologist Dr Vanessa Pirotta said it was incredible to see the whales’ behaviour before the event.
“That’s always the million-dollar question when you have a whale stranding, ‘Why do they do it?’ and in the science world we simply do not know,” Pirotta said.
“They’re a very vocal species, they use high-frequency sounds to communicate so perhaps there was an acoustic communication going on between all of them.
“And to see them doing just that, what we’ve documented, will be scientific gold.”
She said the mammals were more were likely to die despite rescuers’ efforts.
“When the whale strands on any surface the clock starts ticking off,” she said.
“It is possible dead and injured animals will act as a attractant that could lead to sharks coming close in to the shore along this stretch of coast,” the state government’s Shark Smart advises.
“While it’s not uncommon for sharks to be present off the Western Australian coast throughout the year, people should exercise additional caution.
“Officers from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, along with staff from other agencies are monitoring the situation and providing advice to relevant authorities.”
A caravan park captured drone vision earlier of the whales huddling together in the water, in what is believed to be pre-stranding behaviour.
‘Never seen anything like this’
The behaviour of the whales before they were beached puzzled experts and captivated both locals and tourists.
Joanne Marsh from Cheynes Beach Caravan Park said it initially looked like the whales were “caught in a big net”.
“It was really incredible, we didn’t know what we were looking at to start off with,” Marsh told 9News earlier.
“Then when we zoomed in on the photo that we first took, we realised it was a lot of small whales all grouped together and we’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Some visitors made the trip out to see the whales and authorities tracking their behaviour originally thought it was not cause for concern.
The mystery movements are something that some whale experts haven’t seen before.
“Our staff from Albany went out on site to have a look for themselves,” John Edwards from DBCA said earlier on Tuesday.
“It’s a very unusual thing that we’re seeing, we haven’t seen a lot of it before.
“This morning when we saw them they were in a tight circle and they were all facing inward.
“We don’t think it’s automatically a stranding behaviour but clearly any time we get whales that come close to the shore, we keep an eye on it.”
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