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Three mass strandings of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in southern Australian waters

Version 2 2024-06-17, 20:28
Version 1 2017-05-09, 15:02
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-17, 20:28 authored by K Evans, M Morrice, M Hindell, D Thiele
One hundred and fifteen sperm whales (97 female, 15 male, 3 unknown sex) were involved in three mass stranding events during the month of February 1998 along the west and northwest coastlines of Tasmania, Australia. Sixty-six of these whales stranded at Ocean Beach, Strahan; 35 at Greens Beach, Marrawah; and 11 at Black River Beach, Stanley. The remaining whales stranded singly along the coastline. Three mass strandings of this species in such close temporal proximity have not been reported in this area before, and this is the first time that data have been comprehensively collected from complete or near-complete groups of sperm whales from Tasmanian waters. Adult females dominated the three stranding groups. Total lengths ranged from 417 to 1,200 cm and ages ranged from 0.75 to 64 yr. Four females were lactating and four fetuses were found amongst the groups. Stomach contents were dominated by pelagic cephalopods.

History

Journal

Marine mammal science

Volume

18

Pagination

622-643

Location

Chichester, Eng.

ISSN

0824-0469

eISSN

1748-7692

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2002, Society for Marine Mammalogy

Issue

3

Publisher

Wiley