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**By APD Writer Maverick **
JAKARTA, Nov. 14 (APD) — Four of ten sperm whales beached in Indonesia’s Aceh coast were eventually died after rescue processes to bring them back to the sea jointly carried out by local authorities, wildlife activists, navy and police.
A wildlife activist said on Tuesday that the rescue teams managed to push seven of the beached whales to the sea, but one of the whales returned back to the coast, and later on died following the three whales that died in the coast earlier in the day.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Marine & Fisheries Campaign & Communications Coordinator Dwi Aryo Tjiptohandono said WWF would monitor the remaining alive whales in the sea after being rescued, assuring them to continue their journey.
He added that the WWF team would also situation that could prompt them back to the coast.
“We would also watch possible situation, including wounds and injuries suffered by the whales, that may lead them back to the coast again,” Dwi Aryo said.
Three of the ten whales were reported died at around 03.00 a.m. on Tuesday after beached in Ujong Kareng beach, Aceh Besar in Indonesia’s westernmost province of Aceh since Monday morning.
Head of provincial agency to oversee coastal areas and small islands Teuku Nurmahdi said that part of the three whales were eventually died after struggling to escape from corals which withheld their bodies off the beach.
He added that rescue team faced difficulties to rescue the coral-strangulated whales.
“If we made wrong moves to pull the whales off the corals, it would even risk the safety of the whales. So the evacuation could not be conducted for them yet,” he added.
The seven whales, which managed to be returned to the sea, were pulled out from the beach by an Indonesian navy vessel, he said.
According to Nurmahdi, wounds were seen in bodies of part of the beached whales when they were found stranded in the beach on Monday.
He, however, said that the exact factors prompting them to get ashore in the beach has yet to be found.
He alleged that it could be related to the wounds suffered by part of the whales.
“Whale is a kind of fish that always goes along in group. Whale is also known as an animal that loyal to each other. That was why in every case like this, many of them beached together,” he added.
He said that the sperm whales were possibly in their migration journey from Indian to Pacific ocean or likewise.
Indonesia is a vast archipelago country that sits between Asia and Australia continents and those two oceans.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
