Australian wildlife experts were taking measurements and samples from whales that had beached on the shores of Western Australia on Thursday (April 25), with the intent of determining the cause of the mass stranding event.

Fauna Holly Raudino, the Senior Marine Research Scientist at Western Australia’s Parks And Wildlife Service, said there could be a variety of causes, but the priority of taking samples was to rule out infectious diseases having caused the incident.

Multiple vessels and a spotter plane were monitoring the waters near the Toby Inlet estuary in Geographe Bay in order to make certain that the whales would not ‘re-strand’, according to the organisation’s Regional Wildlife Officer, Pia Courtis, adding that so far it had not been the case.

In July last year, more than 50 pilot whales died after stranding on a remote Western Australia beach. The state experienced its largest whale stranding at Dunsborough in 1996 when 320 pilot whales beached themselves.

Pilot whales are known for their tight-knit social bonds, so when one gets into difficulty and strands, the rest often follow, according to the University of Western Australia. -Report from Reuters

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