15 Pilot Whales Dead On Georgia Beach
Responders measure a dead pilot whale on St. Catherines Island Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019.
Georgia DNR
Fifteen short-finned pilot whales have died off the coast of Georgia after stranding on a beach on St.Catherines Island on Wednesday.
The whales had come up through the a sound off St. Catherines Island says Jason Lee with the Georgia Department of NAtural Resources.
“It was very high tide and they ended up stranding themselves by swimming up onto the beach,” said Jason Lee with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
The 15 dead whales were part of a pod of 26.
The surviving 11 whales left the area overnight Thursday, but Lee said are trying to find the pod to make sure it goes back out to sea.
Pilot whales live in deep waters and strandings are rare.
In July, 47 pilot whales were part of a mass Stranding off St. Simons Island Georgia. Only three whales died in that event, as beach goers were able to help push some pilot whales back into deeper waters.
NOAA and DNR biologists are performing Necropsies which they hope will help pin point the cause for the beachings.
Short-finned pilot whales can weigh more than 3 tons and reach 24 feet in length.
DNR officials says the mass stranding on St. Catherines is “clearly not related to” the capsized freighter in St. Simons Sound as the ship is more than 30 miles away.
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