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Pilot Whales in Steadfast Family Groups Strand on the Sandy Shoals of Tasmania
Recently, nearly five hundred long-finned pilot whales have stranded themselves on sand spits in the waters off of Macquarie Heads on Tasmania’s west coast. A place much like Wellfleet in Massachusetts Bay, this is a tidal area with shallow shoals of sand and mudflats. Marquarie Heads is a known hotspot for pilot whale stranding. More than 80% of Australian whale strandings are reported to happen in Tasmania with 200 pilot whales in 2009 and 294 pilot whales in 1935.
More than sixty people turned out to rescue the whales. Working twelve-hour days beneath gray rainy skies, often standing waste deep in the water, they used slings, trucks and small boats with outboard engines to pull surviving whales to deeper waters. They managed to save about 94 of the 470 stranded whales.
Pilot whales are in the dolphin family of toothed whales. These mostly black or gray whales have a length up to 21 feet. Pilots are second only to Orca whales in size. Males are a few feet longer than females. These whales are more robust and recognized by a large melon above the jaw on their foreheads. The scientific name is Globicephala melas, which is from the Latin for globe and the Greek for head. Locally, they are called potheads for this reason.
