Rescuers worked for hours on Tuesday to save a beached humpback whale on Argentina’s Atlantic coast.
Locals first spotted the whale on Monday night on the beach of La Lucila del Mar. The young male whale weighed nearly seven tonnes and was about 8,5 metres (27.8 feet) long, the Argentinian conservation group Mundo Marino said in a statement.
Rescuers pushed the whale while heavy machinery lifted him from the sand back into the sea. When the animal reached deeper waters, he started swimming independently and got away from the coast.
The day before, thirty rescuers had saved a female humpback whale who was stranded in Argentina, Mundo Marino said. She weighed 8 tonnes and was almost 10 meters (32.8 feet) long.
Conservationists said it is unclear why the whales became stranded. But according to the Mundo Marino foundation, a worrying record of whale strandings and deaths have been reported in Argentina and Brazil in recent months.
The Animal Reader is an animal news organisation and posts daily articles about animals. If you can, please consider supporting our work.
Donate
