More than 400 whales were yesterday stranded on a New Zealand beach, with most of them dying quickly as frustrated volunteers desperately raced to save the survivors.
It was one of the largest mass beachings recorded in New Zealand, where strandings are relatively common, the New Zealand Department of Conservation said.
Andrew Lamason, the department’s regional manager, said 416 pilot whales swam ashore at Farewell Spit in the Golden Bay region, on the northern tip of the South Island.
Photo: Reuters
About 70 percent had perished by the time wildlife officers reached the remote location and about 500 volunteers pitched in to get the remaining whales offshore.
However, he conceded the outlook was gloomy, and by late afternoon the majority of the more than 100 whales that were refloated at high tide had swum back ashore.
“With that number dead, you have to assume that the rest are in reasonably poor nick as well,” he told Radio New Zealand. “So we’re sort of preparing ourselves for a pretty traumatic period ahead.”
Department spokesman Herb Christophers said there were so many whale carcasses that it was difficult for the volunteers to get living animals into the water.
“The dead ones that are floating around out there are obstructing their course out to sea,” he told reporters. “I understand they’re concerned about people’s welfare... There’s quite a safety issue there.”
The volunteers at the beach were also advised to be wary of the thrashing tails and fins of the distressed whales, which can weigh up to 2 tonnes.
Pilot whales grow up to 6m long and are the most common species of whale in New Zealand waters.
They are renowned for tragically swimming back ashore after being refloated in an apparent attempt to rejoin their pod.
Volunteers are to again attempt to refloat any survivors today.
In the past, whales that repeatedly re-strand themselves have been euthanized after becoming increasingly weaker with every attempt to return them to the sea.
Whale carcasses have sometimes been tethered in the shallows so sea creatures can feed on them, but such a solution might not work for Golden Bay, a popular tourist area, Christophers said, adding that they would probably “dig a bloody big hole” and bury the carcasses.
The department said it was New Zealand’s third-largest mass stranding.
The biggest occurred when 1,000 whales beached at the remote Chatham Islands in 1918, followed by 450 that washed ashore in Auckland in 1985.
Farewell Spit, about 150km west of the tourist town of Nelson, has witnessed at least nine mass strandings of the species in the past decade, although the latest is by far the largest.
Lamason said the reason the whales beached themselves was unknown, but he believed it was partly due to the local geography.
“If you designed something to catch whales, then Golden Bay is probably the perfect design,” he said. “Out at Farewell Spit it’s a big massive sweeping hook of sand coming about, the bay is very shallow and once the whales get in there ... it’s very difficult to work out which way is out.”
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