Rescue effort fails to save whale

A baby killer whale died after becoming stranded on Bunbury’s Back Beach yesterday despite the efforts of about 50 volunteers.

Dolphin Discovery Centre marine biologist Phil Coulthard said the whale died after volunteers worked at Hungry Hollow Beach for hours to save it.

“It washed up around 1pm and there were a bunch of locals, maybe about 50 people, who were working for a few hours,” he said.

“There was no chance of survival for the whale because it was a baby and it was mother-dependent but it was alone and stranded.”

Mr Coulthard said scientists from Murdoch University took body tissue samples to determine if there were any other issues with the whale before it was removed by Bunbury City Council.

Full story in Tuesday's Bunbury Herald