Whale rescue winds down on Ocean Beach at Macquarie Harbour following mass stranding

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment said crews removed the majority on Sunday morning with the help of local salmon companies.

The carcasses were towed out to sea and released in deep open water. They are expected to drift and eventually sink and decompose in the Southern Ocean.

Incident controller Brendon Clark the focus is on removing the remaining whale carcasses from Macquarie Harbour.

"Yesterday, we undertook extensive aerial surveillance of the area, before moving into this part of the operation.

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"During that exercise we located some live whales in Macquarie Harbour and were able to refloat and release these in deep waters.

"This follows the successful refloating and release of about 44 live whales over the past few days, after we responded to a report of about 200 stranded whales on Wednesday September 21.

"Once again, I would like to thank the NRE staff, volunteers, salmon companies and local community for their assistance with this operation."

Tasmanian Salmon Growers Association CEO Sue Grau praised Huon Aquaculture, Petuna, and Tassal for helping with the whale rescue effort.

"The Tasmanian salmon industry dropped everything to provide boats, equipment, staff and expertise in the recent whale strandings on the west coast of Tasmania.

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"It's been a heartbreaking few days and we would like to thank all those involved in the teamwork that saw some of the animals returned to sea.

"It's been great to see the industry, government and the community coming together."

In the recent days, Ms Grau said the salmon companies assisted in removing the carcasses off Ocean Beach.

"Saving these whales was only possible because of the contribution our industry, who rallied quickly and had appropriate equipment and staff with expertise on standby.

"Each day rescue operations on the water have started early and wrapped up at around 6pm because it's not safe to have our boats navigating Hells Gates at night.

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"Some of our staff even remained on the beach overnight to look after the whales.

"This event is a demonstration of the community services that the salmon industry delivers, usually pretty quietly behind the scenes, like boat rescues and shoreline clean ups."

NRE Tasmania has warned that carcasses might wash up on beaches in the next few weeks due to currents and tidal movements.

NRE will be undertaking surveillance flights to monitor it, and the community should report any sightings to the Whale Hotline on 0427 WHALES.

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