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RESCUERS WERE FORCED to abandon efforts to save around 150 melon-headed whales that stranded on a beach in Japan today, after frantically trying all day to save them.
Local officials in Hokota, about 100 kilometres northeast of Tokyo, said they had been able to save only three of the 149 animals that had beached and that the rescue effort had been called off as darkness fell.
The rest of the creatures, a member of the dolphin family usually found in the deep ocean, had either died or were dying, they said.
“It was becoming dark and too dangerous to continue the rescue work at this beach, where we could not bring heavy equipment,” said an unnamed Hokota city official.
Many people volunteered to rescue them but the dolphins became very, very weak.
“Only three of them have been successfully returned to the sea, as far as we can confirm,” he added.
Locals and coastguard teams had battled through the day to save the animals, trying to stop their skin from drying out as they lay on the sand. Others were carried in slings back towards the ocean.
Television footage showed several animals from the large pod had been badly cut, and many had deep gashes to their skin.
An AFP journalist at the scene said that some of the creatures were being pushed back onto the beach by the tide soon after being released, despite efforts to return them to the water.
A coastguard official told AFP:
We see one or two whales washing ashore a year, but this may be the first time we have found over 100 of them on a beach.
The pod was stretched out along a roughly 10-kilometre-long stretch of beach in the Ibaraki area, where they were found by locals early Friday morning.
“They are alive. I feel sorry for them,” one man at the scene told public broadcaster NHK, as others ferried buckets of seawater to the stranded animals to pour over them.
While the reason for the beaching was unclear, Tadasu Yamadao, a researcher at the National Museum of Nature and Science, said the dolphins might have got lost.
Sonar
“Sonar waves the dolphins emit might have been absorbed in the shoals, which could cause them to lose their sense of direction,” he told the Yomiuri Shimbun.
Melon-headed whales, also known as electra dolphins, are relatively common in Japanese waters and can grow to be two-to-three metres long.
In 2011, about 50 melon-headed whales beached themselves in a similar area.
- © AFP 2015.
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I can see more countries leaving with what they got
@Shaun Gallagher: But But which other countries have a massive trade deficit with the EU and would grant them free trade and which other countries with massive trade surplus in services would agree to leave without any arrangements for future trade.
I’m afraid the EU won this one like they’d win others.
Might won the British Empire but Might won the withdrawal agreement.
There is no win win in this one. It’s a lose win, game set and match to the EU.
@Shaun Gallagher: don’t think so Shaun….look at how dreadful a procedure it was and how it divided a country with much bitterness..the effects coming up will hurt the economy big style Even the Italians have gone quite on leaving….
@Shaun Gallagher: EU runs a huge trade surplus with UK, the EU will do well with an FTA.
Meanwhile UK runs a services surplus with EU, which is not covered by the deal. Services is something like 80% of UK economic activity.
I’d wait a few years before making predictions.
@Cian Martin: Hopefully but not great for us at all in Donegal with the fishing deal done
@Shaun Gallagher: what exactly did they get that is so good?
@Monadnock Mc Inselberg: He means they got tariff- and quota free access to the single market without having to respect the main EU principles such as free movement. But as Cian points out the deal leaves out their massive services market (as any EU trade deal does). We’ll have to see how this all plays out. For one British access does not seem to be free forever. But to be fair I’m still waiting for a decent analysis about how precisely this deal protects the EU’s founding principles. I think journalists need some time to flesh it all out. Well, I guess they’ve needed their Christmas too, so I’ll be patient.
80% of UK economic activity left out of the deal? City of London looks set for decline, UK financial sector has had its day. Boris took what he was given by the EU and is putting on a light show to distract everyone from the real failure.
Financial sector runs the UK economy. Food and industry pale in comparison. Disaster for UK. Equivalent to Ireland losing its foreign investment.
@Attila the Hun: Brits lose the recognition of their professional qualifications in Europe, have to have a visa to live there, will have to pay a travel tax to enter EU from 2022, lose their rights as students to go on Erasmus year, cannot sell services including financial services to EU countries without hindrance, cannot extradite fugitive criminals holed up in the EU back to the UK, have to keep all existing EU rules, have to keep their future regulatory standards in line or face tariffs and quotas.
Brilliant deal. At least they start to spend £350 million extra each week on the Health service from next week, er don’t they Boris?
@Ciaran O’Mara: Erasmus has been replaced with a far better system that will allow UK Students to travel to & study in any country in the world. The ratio of students from the EU compared to going to the EU was 2 to 1 & the EU doesn’t have a single world class 3rd level education institution while the UK has 5 or 6 & Switzerland the only other European country has 1. Now EU students will have to pay the full cost for studying in the UK just as Americans, Indians & Chinese do.
@Joe Thorpe: that’s the point.. they will go elsewhere.
@Joe Thorpe: tell that to all the UK students who used Erasmus for the last 33 years.
@Ciaran O’Mara: it was Nigel THAT PROMISED THAT AND TJEN DISAPPEARED
@Joe Thorpe: ‘ the EU doesn’t have a single world class 3rd level education institution’ Joe lad, that’s infantile
Bye bye eu
@John Errity: Yep
@John Errity: Bye Bye John
@John Errity: where is it going?
So, can I buy goods from UK without paying vat there and here ?
@JillyBean: I think you will pay vat at EU import time. What the UK do is up to them, they are not subjecr to EU vat legislation directly any more
People say the Irish say bad things about the British, but just had the misfortune to read an article in the daily express about david McWilliams and his view of brexit . The level of abuse about this country was unreal . It’s here at https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1376773/Brexit-deal-news-latest-uk-eu-ireland-david-mcwilliams-economist
@Mike Kelly: Sadly typical of many Irish views on the British people, along with gloating for whatever misfortune bestows us.
@Rob Sims: I think you got the wrong end of the kettle , old boy
@Mike Kelly: They are Daily Express readers. That is all!!
@Rob Sims: I wonder why that could be?? Imagine if the EU took all of Britain’s sustainance and watched her people die and emigrate whilst part of the Union? That might cause a wrinkle for a couple of hundred years
I should of said in the comments section
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