More than 100 pilot whales have died and at least 90 others are in grave danger after a pod got stranded on a New Zealand beach.
The incident is one of the largest mass pilot whale strandings over the last decade and conservation officials said on Saturday they had grave fears for the remaining members of the pod.
The whales beached themselves on Friday at Farewell Spit at the northern tip of the South Island, with dozens of rescuers racing to refloat the marine mammals on the evening high tide.
But Department of Conservation (DOC) spokesman Andrew Lamason said the whales had swam aground again overnight after being shepherded out to deep water.
“We’ve now got 103 that are confirmed dead and we’re trying to keep the rest alive,” he said.
“There’s about 150 volunteers trying to make them as comfortable as possible, they’re putting sheets on them and water over them.
“But we’re preparing ourselves for a pretty bad outcome, each time they re-strand their health goes down quite dramatically.”
“There’s a lot of young ones out there that have already passed away. It’s been quite an emotional time for our staff,” he said. “The whales also go through a lot of physical and emotional trauma.”
He said another attempt at refloating would be made at high tide late on Saturday, but said if that failed then euthanasia would be discussed.
Farewell Spit beach, about 130kms west of the tourist town of Nelson, has been the scene of mass pilot whale strandings in the past.
There have been at least eight in the past decade, including two within the space of a week in January last year, although the latest stranding is one of the largest.
“”It seems to happen each summer,” Mr Lamason said. “It’s highly likely it’s the geography, potentially they’re coming in here hunting for fish and becoming disorientated and dying.
“It could be that some of the pods are sick and that brings them up onto the beach, we don’t really know.”
Pilot whales grow up to 7 metres long and are the most common species of whale in New Zealand waters.
Agencies