Hundreds Of Whales Die In Mass Stranding In New Zealand

Hundreds of whales died overnight in New Zealand after a mass stranding left them on shore in what was thought to be the largest event in decades.

According to the Department of Conservation (DOC), about 416 pilot whales beached themselves in Golden Bay, at the top of the South Island, with over 70 percent dead by dawn last Friday. DOC staff and volunteers are working hand in hand trying to save the 100 more that are still alive.

Peter Wiles, one of the first few volunteers to arrive on site, said that the bellies of the corpses were lined up on the sand and floating in shallow waters. "It is one of the saddest things I have seen, that many sentient creatures just wasted on the beach."

Urgent pleas were issued to locals, calling them to drop work and school commitments to head to the remote beach and try to save the creatures to help keep them cool, calm and most especially, wet.

The Guardian reported that Andrew Lamason, team leader for the DOC Takaka area, saw this as the largest in living memory. However, he did note that he had "no clue" as to why the whales decided to beach themselves.

Community ranger Kath Inwood also told ABC News that whale stranding do occur in Farewell Spit. Nonetheless, the massive scale came as a shock, despite the area being considered a whale trap.

By high tide at 10:30 a.m., the 100 remaining whales were refloated successfully, although 90 of them rebeached themselves. The DOC staff and volunteers are currently focusing on keeping them alive until the next high tide.

New Zealand is on the list of highest whale stranding rates in the world. The current one is the third-biggest recorded. The largest was in 1918 for about 1,000 pilot whales on the Chatham Islands, and the second for about 450 whales in Auckland in 1985.