Beach tragedy: 125 pilot whales die stranded in New Zealand bay... but rescuers coax 43 back out to sea

Conservation workers battled to save dozens of pilot whales who became stranded on a New Zealand beach at the weekend.

Of those that were stranded 125 died but 43 others were coaxed back out to sea.

Rescuers monitored the survivors as they swam away and by this morning they were reported well out to sea.
Department of Conservation workers and hundreds of volunteers helped re-float the 43 whales at high tide.

The stranded mammals had been covered in sheets and kept wet through the day.

'It looks pretty good, we've got 43 live ones,' said Dpartment of Conservation ranger Steve Bolten as the pod swam out to sea.

Mr Bolten said one of the whales, leading the others, may have been sick, or their sonar may have led them into the shallow harbour and they couldn't find their way out again.

Meanwhile on South Island, 105 long-finned pilot whales that became stranded on Saturday died.

Golden Bay biodiversity program manager Hans Stoffregen said they were discovered by a tourist plane pilot and only 30 were alive when conservation workers arrived.

'They were in bad shape. By the time we got there two-thirds of them had already died. We had to euthanize the rest,' he said.

The whales had been out of the water for a long time.

'It has been quite hot and they were very distressed. You could see the pain and suffering in their eyes,' he was quoted telling the Southland Times newspaper.
Because the site is part of a nature reserve, the 105 whale carcasses were left to decompose where they stranded, Mr Stoffregen said.

Large numbers of whales become stranded on New Zealand's beaches each summer as they pass by on their way to breeding grounds from Antarctic waters.

Scientists so far have been unable to explain why whales become stranded.






Covered with sheets and regularly doused with water, 43 of the pilot whales were kept alive. They eventually made it back out to sea

Conservation workers were helped by people holidaying near by

Rescue: Hundreds of volunteers gather around the stranded whales to try and coax them back out to sea

Hundreds of whales are stranded every year in New Zealand as they move to warmer waters but scientists are unable to explain why it happens

Stricken: The carcasses of pilot whales are left to decompose in a national park and, right, rescuers manage to re-float one of the stranded mammals

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