Marine scientists want to see more investment so they can better research whale strandings.Scientists hope philanthropic funding will help go towards answering the mystery of whale strandings.Marine mammal ecologist Kate Sprogis said despite public interest in pilot whales spiking when strandings occurred, the science was still a long way from providing answers.
Instead, funding is traditionally focused on marine species that benefit Western Australia such as the western rock lobster. She said research was not usually funded for "blue-sky questions in terms of pure biological science" like this, but she hoped philanthropic funding could help change this in future.
Dr Raudino, who was also at the Toby Inlet event, said she would like to see consistent communication around the results they had from the strandings. Curtin University marine bioacoustics researcher Chong Wei will also conduct micro-CT scans on the ears of two whales from Cheynes Beach to assess whether they had hearing damage prior to the beaching.