(Kudawa) Eleven pilot whales that were stranded near the west coast of Sri Lanka were rescued on Saturday and returned to sea, wildlife authorities told AFP.
Fishermen in the village of Kudawa raised the alarm shortly after midnight after seeing a pod of 14 pilot whales washing up on the shore.
Three of the sea mammals had already died, and a navy team then came to help the fishermen save the others. After successfully pushing the cetaceans back far enough into the water, the navy hauled them offshore.
PHOTO REUTERS
“They were taken by navy boats to the open sea, so that they would not risk returning to the coast,” Eranda Gamage, of the Agency for the Protection of the Sea, told AFP. wild life.
Pilot whales, or pilot whales, so nicknamed because they sometimes accompany boats, can be up to six meters long and weigh a ton.
They are extremely social animals, which therefore live in groups, and the cause of these group strandings, which scientists have studied for decades, is still unknown.
In November 2020, Sri Lankan rescuers managed to save 120 pilot whales that had stranded near Panadura, south of the capital Colombo, still on the west coast of the island.