Roughly 200 whales stranded on Tasmania’s coast have made news for the second time this week. Half of them have been reported as dead while many more suffer.

Another mass stranding happened in Australia earlier this week. On that occasion, more than a dozen sperm whales, mostly young, were found dead on a different beach. The location where the whales were stranded on Tasmania’s coast was confirmed as King Island.

Ongoing rescue efforts by official personnel. According to The Guardian, The Tasmanian department of natural resources and environment confirmed that a pod of “230 pilot whales stranded on Ocean Beach. Some animals were also stranded on a sand flat inside Macquarie Harbour.”

Changes in the water temperature could be one of the many reasons why the animals are showing up on shores. As highly intelligent animals, experts find it strange that the whales would show up in this manner. There were thought to be reported plans for seismic testing in that area, near the same location that these whales feed.

The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (Nopsema) recently confirmed to Guardian Australia that “there have been no seismic surveys undertaken in commonwealth waters off the northern or western coasts of Tasmania in the past week”.

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