42 whales die after mass stranding in Indonesia
Local governor says carcasses will be buried on Saturday
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Your support makes all the difference.Forty-two whales have died following a mass stranding on the Indonesian island of Madura.
Local officials launched a rescue effort on Thursday when around 45 short-finned pilot whales became beached in Modung, East Java province.
Volunteers helped push some of the whales back into deeper water, but it is understood only three survived the ordeal.
Images showed whales dotted across a wide area of the coast, with locals wading around them in ankle-deep water.
Some tried to splash water on the mammals and push them back out to sea.
East Java governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa said authorities are investigating the whales' cause of death.
The carcasses of the dead whales will be buried around the coast on Saturday once the tide had receded, Ms Parawansa added.
Two excavators have been brought in to help with the burials.
Whale Stranding Indonesia (WSI), a non-governmental organisation, said that around 60 marine mammals were found beached in 2020, including dugongs and spinner dolphins.
That figure was down from over 80 in the previous year, according to WSI figures.
In 2016, 10 pilot whales died when a group of around 35 became stranded during high tides on the coast of Pesisir village in Probolinggo, about 90 miles south of Modung on the main island of Java.
It is still unclear why whales, which travel together in pods, beach themselves but they are known to follow a leader as well as gather around an injured or distressed whale.
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