Queensland campers describe ‘overwhelming’ false killer whale stranding on House Beach near Bremer Bay

Two campers from Queensland have described the “overwhelming” moment seven false killer whales beached themselves on a remote Great Southern beach. Camper Mark McCormac was camping at House Beach on Monday, about 12km east of Bremer Bay, while travelling WA’s coast line with his wife Deanne Ashmore when they noticed seven false killer whales, a type of dolphin, stranded on the beach. “We literally pulled up on the headland and came down to look at the beach and just noticed seven whales were stranded up on the beach there,” he said. “False killer whales are a large animal — seeing seven of them stuck on a beach, there’s two of us and there’s only so much you can and can’t do. “It’s pretty overwhelming to start with . . . basically we just came down to the beach and did like a basic quick sort of triage to work out, are there any that we can actually grab and drag back in and hopefully get back into the water again?” Mr McCormac said all the animals were alive when they first discovered them but some looked on the “edge of passing away.” “We found two juveniles and a couple of others that seemed to be in good health, or good enough health, and we just started to try and drag those back off the beach,” he said. They reported the find to authorities about 4pm with a ranger assessing the situation on Monday before the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions deployed a team of 12 to the site early on Tuesday, hoping to refloat the animals back into the ocean. “With these large animals, it takes a mammoth effort . . . but the WA Parks and Wildlife Service, they’ve done an incredible job here to get all the people together today,” Mr McCorman said. Despite their efforts, two juveniles and two adults had died by lunchtime. At about 1pm, the three remaining adults were successfully refloated using slings with one seen swimming in the open ocean and another sticking to the shallows where volunteers worked to rehabilitate it. But the third returned to the beach where it was seen breathing in distress as volunteers poured water on it. At about 4.30pm, DBCA confirmed the animal had been euthanized. Mr McCorman said it was the first time he had seen a stranding, describing it as a “bit overwhelming.” “It’s an incredible animal . . . when you’re trying to get the younger ones back into the water again, you’re looking them and their eyeballs, and they’re looking at you,” Mr McCormac said. “It’s really sad . . . it’s a connection moment but you can tell that they know that they’re in distress.” DBCA Albany regional leader conservation and incident controller Deon Utber said genetic samples and swabs had been taken from the pod to analyse zoonatic diseases or diseases that may have led to the pods beaching. “My understanding is with false killer whales, we haven’t had that many strandings in Western Australia — this is the first one we’ve had on the South Coast that I’m aware of,” he said. “This area is well known for strandings, and there has been a number of strandings over the last 30 years that have been recorded.” Mr Utber said the exact cause of the beaching is “very difficult to understand and pin down” to a specific reason. “There has been hypotheses about disease or disorientation or a sick member within the pod, but it’s very difficult to pin that down to a specific reason why these pod animals demonstrate this kind of behaviour,” he said. DBCA Parks and Wildlife Services Albany district manager Jeremy Friend said the animals’ bodies would be left on the beach as their removal would be “extremely difficult” and a shark alert would likely remain in place with the beach to remain closed until further notice. “Given the remoteness, it is likely that we will need to leave those carcasses in situ and allow nature to take its course with those carcasses,” he said. No other strandings have been detected with Department of Biodiversity, Conservation, and Attraction officers using drones to monitor nearby waters. “In these events, where there are mass strandings, there is always a chance that there will be additional whales,” Mr Friend said. “At this point, it’s unlikely, we can’t say that there won’t be, but at this point, it’s unlikely that any further animals from the pod will still be in the area.”