157 Dolphins Stranded on Tasmania Beach, 90 Left Struggling

A group of 157 dolphins became stranded on a Tasmania beach on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday afternoon, 90 dolphins were still alive but struggling under a lot of stress from the sun and wind. The professionals euthanized the animals to save them from suffering.

The dolphins were false killer whales, a type of dolphin that shares a similar skull shape with an orca. The efforts to push the dolphins back into the sea were fruitless because the location was very far and hard to reach. Biologists said the location was susceptible to mass strandings, though it was the first time in 50 years that false killer whales had stranded there.

False killer whales are extremely social animals that move in large pods, and if one becomes disoriented, it can lead the whole pod onto shore. Nobody is really certain why they strand. False killer whales are listed as “near threatened” by the Australian government.