Dozens Of Pilot Whales Get Stranded In New Zealand Bay, Rescuers Rush To Save Them
The Department of Conservation (DOC) said the pod of 49 long-finned pilot whales was found at Farewell Spit. Dozens of the roughly 50 long-finned pilot whales have already died since they stranded.
A pod of 49 long-finned pilot whales was found at Farewell Spit, about 90 kilometres (55 miles) north of the South Island tourist town of Nelson.
Farewell Spit is a 26-kilometre hook of sand that protrudes into the sea at Golden Bay in New Zealand.
AFP
According to AFP, nine of the whales had died and more than 60 people were working to keep the survivors alive for an attempt to refloat them at high tide, the DOC said.
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"Marine mammal medics will assist with refloating the whales and caring for them on the beach, keeping them cool and wet until they can be refloated," a DOC spokeswoman said.
SWIM FREE: Over 200 volunteers join forces to save 40 stranded pilot Whales from a remote beach near Farewell Spit, New Zealand. https://t.co/zGvwk7Stqb pic.twitter.com/g7CL1JueH1
¡ª ABC News (@ABC) February 22, 2021
Reports state that the volunteers stood with the whales for more than an hour in chest-deep water, they did not seem motivated to swim out to deeper water.
Whales strand themselves either from chasing prey too far inshore to trying to protect a sick member of the group or escaping a predator, reports ABC.
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AFP
According to the Guardian, the last mass stranding there was in February 2017, when an estimated 600-700 whales were beached at Farewell Spit and it ended up in 250 deaths.
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Last year nearly 100 pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins died in a mass stranding on the remote Chatham Islands, about 800km (497 miles) off New Zealand¡¯s east coast.
