A sperm whale that became stranded on a sandbank at a popular beach near Perth, Western Australia died on Tuesday despite efforts to save it, BBC reported. A drone video footage showed the large whale swimming in shallow water close to Port Beach on Saturday. The whale was more than 15 meters long and weighed more than 30 tonnes.
Wildlife officers spent several days trying to guide the elderly whale, which was injured and severely sunburnt back to deeper waters. They sprayed the animal with water to minimise its blistering and sunburn, but it was too weak to return to the sea.
''It was moving pretty gingerly and swam only 200 or 300 meters before it seemed to sort of stop. Its respiration gave us some signs that it was coming to the end,'' said Mark Cugley, Incident Controller from the Parks and Wildlife Service.
After the whale became stranded, many people swam close to it, touching, poking it and taking selfies.
The whale would already have been in distress on Saturday when it arrived at the beach and the interaction with people may have increased its stress, government marine mammal expert Kelly Waples said Monday.
The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation, and Attractions (DBCA) closed the beach in the morning to move out the carcass.
"At around 4.30 am this morning, DBCA wildlife and marine officers observed the whale had moved 300m away from the sand bar towards Garden Island. After completing an on-water assessment of the whale, we can confirm that sadly, the whale died at approximately 6.30 am. We would just like to say thank you to everyone involved in this incident, including the community. The next stage of the operation will involve removing the carcass out of the water," the agency said in a statement on Facebook.
Live whales often come to shore alone because they're old, sick, injured, or disorientated, according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Group.
"We will be looking at certainly doing some post-mortem or necropsy analysis as well to understand anything more we can about the death of the whale and also about this species, given it's quite unusual to have a sperm whale in this area of Perth," Mr. Cugley said.
Sperm whales are listed as endangered in Australia.
