ANOTHER DEAD WHALE FOUND ON SEVEN MILE BEACH IN LENNOX HEAD

By Sarah Waters

Whale deaths in the Northern Rivers region have become an unusually common occurrence in the past few months with another dead baby whale found at Seven Mile Beach in Lennox Head last Sunday.

The baby humpback had been attacked by sharks and was removed by Ballina Shire Council with the help of Jali Local Aboriginal Land Council.

There has been a spate of whales washed up on Northern NSW beaches since July.

On July 1, a six-metre, 30-tonne adult humpback whale died on Seven Mile Beach before the tide could take it back out to sea, despite a large-scale rescue operation.

In the same month, a humpback whale calf, believed to be just a few days old with its umbilical cord still attached, washed up alive on the same beach.

It was euthanised after marine vets determined it was too young to survive without its mother, even if it could be refloated back into the ocean.

Last Wednesday, October 4, a juvenile humpback was found dead at Tallow Beach, in Byron Bay, at about 7am.

The popular surfing beach was closed by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) while the whale was removed and taken away to be buried.

Founder and chief executive of Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital Dr Stephen Van Mil has worked in the region for the past 10 years and said up until this year, he had never seen a dead or stranded whale on the NSW far north coast before.

He believed there were a number of factors which could cause the whales to beach in the region.

“Whale numbers generally are high, which is great news, but we’re certainly seeing a lot more migration traffic,” Dr Van Mil said.

“Of more concern is rising ocean temperatures.

“Normally, whales migrate north during our winter to find warm waters to calve – those warm waters are here, and calving’s have been observed around Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour and Byron Bay.

“We believe that with bigger numbers and calving’s occurring in unusual locations, the whales are literally landing in trouble – nets, predatory sharks, boats, tides and currents add to the issues,” he said.

The beached Whale on Seven Mile Beach, Lennox Head.

Dr Van Mil attended the stranding of the 30-tonne adult humpback whale that died on Seven Mile Beach on July 1.

He and his team from Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital worked with volunteer group ORRCA (Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia) and the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service to take the whale’s bloods every hour, keep it hydrated and sedated.

It was hoped the whale could be refloated back into the open ocean once the tide came in, but unfortunately the whale died an hour before high tide.

Dr Van Mil said the humpbacks were coming close to the shore and sometimes when they’re chasing food, they can go over a sandbar and can’t get back to the open ocean.

In other instances, if they’re unwell, they can become weak and disoriented and get pushed in through tidal movements.

“For an individual animal it is a case-by-case basis – did it get injured, was it a calf that got separated from its mother by predating animals – all those things come into play,” he said.

“But they’re not supposed to be birthing in the waters that they are.

“There’s no argument that the ocean temperatures are rising.

“Those temperatures are telling their metabolic clocks that it is time to calve and they’re calving in the wrong locations.

“Recently on the Gold Coast a whale calf got caught up in netting and the mother was hanging around, she was distressed because the baby was caught up and couldn’t move with her.

“This is what happens when we’re changing the face of our natural environment and there’s consequences.

“When you’re trying to explain these recent strandings, the rise in the ocean temperature is probably the biggest contributing factor.”

A record number of humpback whales have been sighted migrating up the NSW coast this year.

Current estimates for the humpback population migrating up the east coast have been anywhere from 30,000 – 50,000 whales.

Humpback whales pass Australia’s east coast during their annual migration from Antarctica to the Great Barrier Reef.

After a summer of feeding on krill in Antarctic waters, the whales migrate north to their subtropical breeding grounds off the Queensland coast.

Humpbacks can be seen heading north between May and July and from September to November, on their way back to the Antarctic.

Humpback whales travel up to 10,000km during the migration.

Groups of young males typically lead the migration while pregnant cows and cow-calf pairs are at the rear.

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