Seven pilot whales were found dead on an eastern Indonesian beach, an official said Saturday, after 17 were stranded in the remote area.

Residents of nearby Menia Village managed to save ten of the whales, all roughly three to four metres long, in a rescue attempt on Friday.

"There were some lacerations on their body from the contacts with rocks," local marine conservation agency head Ikram Sangaji told AFP.

He added that the injuries on the whales indicated they were not handled properly during the rescue.

Six of the animals were buried in a traditional ceremony but one was chopped apart by some of the villagers for its meat, Sangaji said.

Local officials had taken samples of the bodies to investigate the deaths and why they were stranded.

Sangaji said in 2012 more than 40 whales were found stranded on the beach Kolo Udju beach on the coast of Menia Village, East Nusa Tenggara.

Cross-currents off the beach pose a danger to whales as they can easily get caught between the frigging reefs during the tidal waves, he said.

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Whale 'whispers' keep young safe near predators: study
Paris (AFP) Oct 8, 2019
Female Atlantic right whales lower their voices to a whisper when communicating with their young in order to prevent "eavesdropping" by predators, researchers said Wednesday. Several species of adult whales rarely get hunted by predators in the wild owing to their size, but preying on their young is common. A team of scientists used microphones attached by suction cups to look at the voice patterns of right whales - an endangered species with only around 500 known specimens remaining. The ... read more