22 SPERM WHALES DIE IN AUSTRLAIAN TASAMIA
HOBART, Tasmania, Australia - Rescuers were racing against the clock Monday to save two huge sperm whales stranded on a Tasmanian sandbank after 22 others died, the Parks and Wildlife Service saidMarine mammal specialists were on site in Macquarie Harbour at Strahan on Tasmania's northwest coast, but the rescue bid was hampered by rough weather.
Twenty-two of the whales - each weighing two tonnes and up to 12 metres long - washed ashore on Saturday at Ocean Beach near Strahan, and all of them died.
Four others came into the harbour and became stranded on a sandbank. Two of these were successfully refloated and swam back out to sea, but the other two remain stuck.
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