00:00While we've had good recent success at previous whale stranding events on the west coast at
00:12Macquarie Harbour and surrounds with refloating and rescuing whales, it's important to note
00:18that the environmental and access challenges mean we are unlikely to be able to use those
00:22same rescue techniques.
00:24Our mass stranding events usually involve pilot whales, however these are false killer
00:28whales and it is our first large mass stranding of these animals in around 50 years.
00:35It's currently an early stage in the response and so assessments are ongoing, therefore
00:40some details are limited and yet to be confirmed.
00:44At this stage we do not know why these animals have stranded and we won't be speculating.
00:50The team on the ground will be conducting post-mortem investigations and sampling of
00:54deceased animals in an attempt to determine some reasoning behind the stranding.
01:01The duration of it could be a number of days, but of course we'll be trying to determine
01:05what will be the most humane method of dealing with the affected animals, those stranded,
01:12and given if it's determined there is a very low likelihood of being able to refloat them,
01:19then we have to look at what other options are available to us.
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