Aerial footage showed what appeared to be dead whales beached off the Australian coast, Wednesday, September 23, with more than half the estimated 470 mammals in the country’s biggest stranding on record already believed dead. ––––––––– READ MORE: Rescuers are trying to save scores of whales beached in the Australian state of Tasmania. Earlier this week, a pod of 270 pilot whales were found washed ashore. Two hundred more were discovered a short distance away Wednesday.   The stranding of about 470 pilot whales on the west coast of Tasmania is the largest ever recorded in the state’s history.   The animals were found washed up on sandbars Monday, prompting a rescue operation involving wildlife experts, the police and volunteers. The group managed to return some of the whales into deeper water and coax them back out to sea. It is a challenging task. Pilot whales can grow up to seven meters long and weight three tons.   But dozens of the pod discovered Monday have died, and Australian wildlife experts believe that most of the 200 whales found beached 10 kilometers away Wednesday have not survived.     ––––––––– LINK: https://www.voanews.com/science-health/australia-races-rescue-beached-whales 
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