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NZEALAND-WHALES-ENVIRONMENT
New Zealand rescuers save six stranded whales
WELLINGTON, Nov 27, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Six beached whales were successfully
refloated off New Zealand Tuesday, rescuers said, after a spate of mass
strandings in recent days that resulted in the deaths of dozens of marine
mammals.
Wildlife rangers and volunteers used pontoons to float the killer pygmy
whales — part of a group of 12 found beached in the country’s far north on
Sunday — and take them about 400 metres (437 yards) offshore.
“We are hopeful that the six whales that have been refloated will remain
at sea,” the Department of Conservation (DOC) department said in a statement,
adding that another two whales were euthanised after continually restranding.
Two of the pod were already dead, and two more died after being found by
rescuers on the North Island’s west coast, with the remaining eight
transported by truck to the east coast on Monday, where sea conditions were
calmer.
The survival of even part of the pod was a rare success for DOC as it
struggled to deal with four separate strandings in quick succession,
including a sperm whale and a pygmy sperm whale in separate incidents on the
North Island coast. By far the largest was when up to 145 pilot whales were
found late Saturday washed up on Stewart Island, 30 kilometres (19 miles) off
the southern coast of the South Island.
Half the animals were already dead and the rest were put down because
there was no chance of rescuing them from the remote location
US travel blogger Liz Carlson was among a group of hikers on Stewart
Island that found the whales and she described her frustration at being
unable to help the huge sea creatures.
“When we realised the horror of what we were seeing, we dropped everything
and ran straight into the water,” she posted on social media.
“Desperately we grabbed their tails and pushed and yelled, before we got
hammered by them thrashing around.
“It was useless — they were so big and heavy and the realisation we could
do nothing to save them was the worst feeling I’ve ever experienced.”
The reason whales and dolphins strand is not fully understood but factors
can include sickness, navigational error, geographical features, the presence
of predators, and extreme weather.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1318 hrs