Four of the whales died during the rescue operation, Navy spokesman Captain Indika de Silva said.
Colombo:
The Sri Lankan navy said on Tuesday that more than 100 whales were rescued after they were stranded on a beach on the island’s southwest coast.
Villagers defied a new coronavirus curfew to help save the small whales on Monday, wading through the crashing waves to push them back into the sea in Panadura, south of the capital, Colombo.
“We fought them all back last night, around 100 to 120 whales,” Navy spokesman Captain Indika de Silva told Reuters.
Four of the whales died during the rescue operation, he said.
“I was fishing when I saw a dark area and about 100 made it ashore,” said fisherman Upul Ranjith earlier.
“I don’t know why this happened. It has never happened before. This is the first time I see it,” Ranjith said.
The phenomenon of whales stranded in shallow water remains largely a mystery to scientists.
In September, several hundred whales died in the shallows off the Australian coast in its largest stranding on record and one of the largest in the world.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
