Rescuers try to save Australia’s beached whales

Rescuers assist beached long fin pilot whales at Hamelin Bay on March

PERTH Rescuers on Tuesday used trucks and cranes fitted with giant slings in a bid to transport 11 surviving whales from a mass beaching on Australia’s west coast to a safe harbour for release.The survivors were among a pod of about 80 long-finned pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins that stranded in Hamelin Bay, south of the city of Perth, on Monday. About 70 volunteers worked through the night to try to keep the remaining 17 animals alive, said conservation department spokeswoman Leanne O'Rourke, adding that despite efforts, some of the creatures had died. At dawn a risky operation began to transport the 11 survivors by road to nearby Flinders Bay, a safer and more sheltered area for release.‘They were using trucks, and they were using cranes to get them onto the trucks with slings,’ O’Rourke told AFP.‘We did lose a few overnight and it’s a very traumatic experience for the animals so there's definitely a lot of risk involved. But at this stage it’s all operating fairly smoothly so we're very hopeful that we can get them out to sea and healthy and happy,” she said.A mother whale and her calf were the first to make the 20 kilometre road trip to the spot where all the mammals are to be held in the shallows for simultaneous release before nightfall.