Pilot whales stranded on King Island, Tasmania

Mar 2 - Nearly 200 pilot whales and a handful of bottlenose dolphins are beached on King Island in Tasmania.

Rescuers said only 54 of the 194 pilot whales who stranded themselves on King Island, between Tasmania and the Australian mainland were still alive. Seven dolphins also beached themselves.

The latest mass beaching takes the number of whales stranded in Tasmania's northwest over the past three months to more than 400, and follows the deaths of 48 sperm whales in January.

Mass strandings of whales occur periodically in Australia and New Zealand for reasons that are not entirely understood.

Theories include disturbance of echo-location, possibly by interference from sound produced by human activities at sea.