New Zealand: Beached whales die in mass stranding

New Zealand’s Department of Conservation on Friday said more than two dozen whales had died in a mass stranding at remote Farewell Spit, the South Island beach that is known as a death trap for whales. 

Wildlife rangers found 34 long-finned pilot whales at the beach late Thursday but 29 of the marine mammals were already dead. The most common species of whale in New Zealand waters, growing up to 6 meters long, pilot whales are particularly susceptible to mass strandings.

"With the high tide this morning, we will attempt to refloat the five live whales.  The process can take some time and we may not know if it is successful or not for several hours," the department said in a Friday statement on social media. 

Five of the whales were refloated later on Friday at high tide. But another beached whale and another deceased whale were later found a short distance from the site at Triangle Flat on Farewell Spit. The Department of Conservation said it was not clear if these were the whales that had been refloated a few hours earlier or not.

Farewell Spit is a 26-kilometer (roughly 16 mile) stretch of sand that juts out into the sea. The infamous beach has seen more than 10 whale strandings over the last 15 years, the largest of which was in February 2017, when close to 700 of the mammals beached. Nearly 250 died.

It remains unclear why the beach is so deadly for whales.

"The cause of this stranding is not known, but Golden Bay is a high stranding area with Farewell Spit hooking around the northern entrance into the bay and forming extensive, many kilometers wide, intertidal sand flats," the department said.

A popular theory is that the spit creates a shallow seabed in the bay, which could interfere with the whales' sonar navigation systems.

see/msh (AFP)