* 166 confirmed deaths, but rescuers are still pulling bodies from the rubble
* 260,000 tons of silt already remove after quake 'liquified' rock under city
* Parts of Christchurch will have to be abandoned and modular housing brought in for those left homeless
At least 10,000 homes in Christchurch will have to be demolished because of damage caused by last month's earthquake, Prime Minister John Key said today.
Parts of the city, on New Zealand's south island, will have to be abandoned altogether after the magnitude 6.3 quake caused massive structural damage.
The epicentre of the quake struck within three miles of the city and close to the surface on February 22.
Damage: A car lies under rubble outside the Rugby World Cup venue AMI Stadium
Mourning: Rescue team mebers from Japan Disaster Relief Team hold a moment of silence near the collapsed CTV building. Japanese students were trapped inside a foreign language school in the building
Shattered: A steel frame supports the front of Christchurch Cathedral after it suffered serious damage
* Death toll could be as high as 240
* Only 13 victims have been publicly identified so far
* Christchurch will take 'more than 10 years to rebuild', officials warn
Rescuers today officially gave up hope of finding more survivors of New Zealand's devastating earthquake as the death hit 161, saying that no one trapped in rubble when the disaster struck nine days earlier could still be alive.
The news was a blow to the families of around 200 people listed as missing, many of whom clung to faltering hope for good news despite more than a week of silence from beneath the piles of debris that still litter the city of Christchurch.
So far only 13 have been publicly identified because the extent of injuries suffered by many victims has made the process slow and painstaking, requiring DNA testing or dental records, officials say.
Rescue workers clear out remains from the CTV building in Christchurch on Tuesday this week. Today, those searching for survivors officially gave up hope of finding more people alive
Search and recovery personnel from Britain sit on a basket crane and watch as a demolition arm moves rubble away from the Pyne Gould Corporation building last week. The official death toll has now hit 161
Exhausted rescue workers from the U.S. take a break during a search of an earthquake-damaged building in central Christchurch yesterday
Members of the Japan Disaster Relief Team for New Zealand Earthquake line up as they board their flight to New Zealand by government aircraft at Narita international airport in Narita, east of Tokyo, February 23, 2011
Hundreds of foreign rescuers will join exhausted New Zealand teams tomorrow in an increasingly desperate search of quake-shattered buildings in central Christchurch as time runs out to find survivors buried under rubble.
Officials have abandoned hope of finding anyone alive in the collapsed Canterbury Television (CTV) building in the city centre, including foreign students at a third-floor language school, with a grader moving in to clear debris.
Rescue workers prepare a stretcher to retrieve a body from the rubble of CTV building today, February 24, 2011
International rescuers intensified their search for earthquake survivors in New Zealand today despite fading hopes of finding any more people alive and fears that a damaged 26-storey tower could collapse nearby at any time.
Specialist teams from quake-prone countries such as Japan and the United States used sniffer dogs and listening devices to search for signs of life, two days after a strong tremor struck the tourist city of Christchurch, killing at least 76 people in the country’s deadliest natural disaster for 80 years.
Rescue teams rushed today to a small church after it was believed that a woman’s voice had been heard — apparently the first sign in more than 15 hours that people might still be alive — but it turned out to be another false hope.
“Right now we do not have any active contact with any person or any indication of signs of life at any location we are working at,” fire rescue co-ordinator Jim Stuart Black said.
“We are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.”
* Death toll at 75 but hope is fading fast for 300 missing
* Search called off at TV station and school showing 'no signs of life'
* Race against time to free people trapped in the rubble
* Briton and Irish citizen confirmed killed in the disaster
* Deadliest New Zealand natural disaster for 80 years
Hope is fading fast for hundreds of people who are still missing, feared dead in Christchurch as searches in the city are called off.
Families, friends and colleagues are being told to prepare for the worst as they are told the chances of finding their loved ones alive are extremely low.
A few experienced joy and relief as people were pulled from the wreckage with bleary eyes but barely a scratch on them, but those scenes are not expected to be repeated as time goes by.
At least 75 people have now known to have died but there are still around 300 people missing under deep piles of rubble and huge chunks of concrete.
Razed to the ground: The Canterbury TV building today, where police now say there is no hope
Rubble: An aerial of the site where the Canterbury TV building has collapsed
The death toll from the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand’s second biggest city, stands at about 92 and could rise substantially, Prime Minister John Key told Sky News television today.
“The indications we’re getting from the police ... is that the loss of life could be more substantial than anyone of us had ever dreamed of,” Key said.
“They’ve been in touch with a couple of hundred families who have clearly indicated that they have a loved one missing and police have every reason to believe those people may be fatalities.”
Wrecked buses are seen in rubble on Colombo Street, the main street of Christchurch, today, February 24, 2011
* PM John Key: 'It's heartbreaking'
* Up to 100 feared trapped under rubble of collapsed buildings
* Second quake in five months struck closer to the surface - and during busy lunchtime period
* Famous Christchurch Cathedral destroyed
* The Queen sends message of support
Rescuers are continuing their desperate search for survivors throughout the night amid the ruins of the New Zealand city of Christchurch after a massive earthquake that killed at least 65 people.
It was the second major shock to hit the city of 350,000 in five months, although it caused far more destruction than the first.
More than 100 people are thought to still be trapped in the rubble today.
'It is just a scene of utter devastation,' said Prime Minister John Key, who arrived in the city within hours of the quake.
He said the death toll may rise, and added: 'We may well be witnessing New Zealand's darkest day.'
* People trapped under rubble of collapsed buildings
* City evacuated amid fears of fires and more devastation
* Second huge shock follows initial quake
* Famous Christchurch Cathedral destroyed
Scores of people are feared dead after a major earthquake brought down buildings in the centre of Christchurch, New Zealand, during the busy lunchtime today.
Local residents, office workers and tourists from around the world are among the casualties who have either been killed or seriously injured as buildings crashed down.
As the first evidence came of bodies being removed from wrecked buildings, police confirmed that there had been 'multiple deaths' .
Devastation: Police said 'multiple fatalities' were expected and many people were trapped under the rubble after buildings and homes collapsed in Christchurch city center
Little hope: A bus was crushed by falling debris in the quake which measured 6.3 on the Richter Scale
Toppled: The four-storey Pyne Gould Corporation building lies in ruins after the earthquake. One local reporter said it felt like a bomb had gone off....And after: An aerial view shows the damage to the cathedral's spire following the quake. 'We just don't know if there are people under this rubble,' said a priest, standing outside
A strong quake killed and trapped people beneath rubble and sparked fires and toppled buildings in New Zealand’s second-biggest city of Christchurch today.
It was the second quake to hit the city in five months.
Local TV showed bodies being pulled out of rubble strewn around the city centre, though it was unclear whether any of them were alive. But police reported multiple fatalities after the 6.3 magnitude quake struck during the busy lunchtime.
“I was in the square right outside the cathedral — the whole front has fallen down and there were people running from there,” said John Gurr, a camera technician who was in the city centre when the quake hit. “There were people inside as well.”
Authorities ordered major hospitals up and down the country to make room for quake victims but there was no word on how many might have been killed or were trapped beneath collapsed buildings. There were reports of a shortage of ambulances.
A fissure in the road in this February 22, 2011, image taken from video footage.
People helping to evacuate the injured from the rubble of the earthquake in Christchurch, February 22, 2011, in this image taken from video footage
Quake-hit Christchurch struggles to get back on its feet
New Zealand’s second-biggest city, Christchurch, struggled to get back to business on Tuesday as aftershocks caused more damage and kept parts of the city cordoned off three days after a magnitude 7.1 quake.
The size of the business district area blocked off was reduced and bus services resumed, but schools remained closed and a state of emergency in the city of 350,000 people will remain until mid-Wednesday.
A powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked New Zealand's second largest city Christchurch just before dawn Saturday, causing widespread damage and panic among residents, but no serious injuries.
Locals ran out onto the streets in fear after the quake, to find roads blocked by the facades of buildings which crashed down and crushed parked vehicles.
Electricity was cut off in much of the city, while roads were littered with glass from broken windows.
The Civil Defence ministry said the national crisis management centre had been activated.
"We've had a wide range of reports of some serious damage," a civil defence spokesman said, adding it was fortunate the quake struck at a time when streets were largely deserted.
The earthquake was measured at 7.4 on the Richter scale
Tsunami strikes: Large waves pound concrete breakwaters at a port in Ichinomiya city, Chiba province
Residents sleep in the streets for fear of aftershocks following a major earthquake in Santiago
More than 150,000 households in Japanese coastal areas were urged to evacuate due to tsunami warnings after a powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck the coast of Chile
A huge magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile early on Saturday, knocking down homes and hospitals
Motorists pass under a footbridge that has collapsed over the Panamerican Highway after a major earthquake in Curico
Jake Fender and Jason Heun sit atop their van on Round Top Drive on February 27, 2010 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Residents stocked up on food and emergency supplies in preparation for a potentially damaging tsunami
A policeman talks with a girl on the beach at Misson Bay on the east coast of Auckland as he patrols to clear the water of swimmers after a tsunami alert
Seawater makes its way towards the city center at a port in Kesennuma, northern Japan
How the tsunami swept across the Pacific Ocean
Tsunami alert: This image obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows a model of the forecast of the tsunami triggered by the earthquake in Chile
Tsunami waves of up to 5 ft hit far-flung Pacific regions from the Russian far east and Japan to New Zealand's remote Chatham Islands on Sunday after a massive earthquake struck Chile, killing more than 300 people.
Hundreds of thousands of residents in Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines and Russia's Kamchatka were told to evacuate after Saturday's Chile quake, one of the world's most powerful in a century, but there were no immediate reports of damage.
In Japan, a 5ft tsunami hit the fishing port of Otsuchi on the north Pacific coast, Kyodo news agency said.
Smaller waves hit a swathe of the country from the small island of Minamitori 1,200 miles south of Tokyo to Hokkaido island in the north, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Japanese officials have ordered or advised some 540,000 households along the country's Pacific coast to evacuate and said later waves could be much bigger.
'The full-fledged tsunami waves are starting to arrive,' University of Tokyo professor Yoshinobu Tsuji told NHK public TV.
'This is not the last one,' he said.
It was Japan's first major tsunami warning in 17 years and only the fourth since 1952, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
'Carelessness could be the biggest enemy. In the past, even if the waves were not so big, there has been great damage with 2-metre high tsunami,' Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told reporters.
Train services were halted in many areas along the Pacific coast and some highways were closed.
Police cars and fire trucks patrolled coastal roads and fishing boats, seeking to avoid any tsunami, headed out to sea under gray skies, with snow flurries in some areas.
The area that could be hit hardest, where around 140 people died in a previous tsunami 50 years ago, has many small harbours that could concentrate the force of a tsunami.
'The waves could climb up the land, so for real safety you should evacuate to a place several times higher than the predicted height of the waves,' JMA official Yasuo Sekita told a news conference.
The agency said the first wave might not be the biggest and that the warning could remain in effect for a long time.
TV footage showed elderly women with cloth-wrapped bundles on their backs gathering at evacuation centres as cars pulled up and other women unloaded shopping bags filled with belongings.
The tsunami warning covered the eastern seaboard of Japan, although for Tokyo Bay and many other areas the warnings were for waves of only around one metre (3 ft).
The area is no stranger to tsunamis.
In 1896, a magnitude 8.5 earthquake and tsunami left more than 22,000 dead in northeastern Japan. Another of magnitude 8.1 hit the same region in 1933, killing 3,064.
In May 1960, a tsunami struck the coasts of Hokkaido and other northern Pacific coastal areas after an earthquake in Chile, killing around 140 people.
Since then, many harbours have had sea gates installed to try to protect from tsunami and storms.
'Coastal barriers have been built since the 1960 tsunami so we can't simply compare the situation with that time but it is still crucial that people evacuate,' said Masaaki Kubo of the Kamaishi Eastern Fishery Union in Iwate, in northern Honshu.
The first waves to hit New Zealand were reported at the remote Chatham Islands, around 800 kilometres (500 miles) east of New Zealand, with surges of up to 1.5 metres measured, the Civil Defence Ministry said.
A resident on one of the smaller islands in the group, Pitt, said the surges were continuing and getting bigger.
'The bay empties right out. It takes about a minute and a half and then it surges back in, in about the same amount of time,' Bernadette Malinson told Radio New Zealand. 'The surges have been getting bigger -- at least 2 metres at present.'
Authorities in Russia's far eastern Kamchatka region lifted a tsunami alert after a series of small waves appeared to cause no damage, a spokeswoman for the Emergencies Ministry said.
A tsunami hit beaches in eastern Australian but there were not initial reports of damage.
Australia issued a tsunami alert for most of its east coast and eastern parts of the island state of Tasmania, but authorities said there were no concerns about major innundation.
Hawaii dodged serious damage on Saturday when a tsunami merely lapped ashore, although residents were warned to stay away from coastal areas because the ocean could remain unsettled for several more hours.
In its magnitude, yesterday’s earthquake was massive, one of the largest since the 9.1 quake that caused the tsunami in Sumatra in 2004. It was classified as ‘great’, with the potential to cause ‘tremendous damage’ by the U.S. Geological Survey and triggered tsunami warnings as far away as Hawaii.
But it was not a significant surprise to scientists because Chile is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a 24,800-mile stretch of nearly continuous oceanic trenches and volcanoes where, historically, about 80 per cent of the world’s largest earthquakes have occurred.
In 1960 Chile was hit by a 9.9-magnitude quake, the biggest since records have been kept. It killed 1,655 people and created a destructive tsunami which battered Easter Island and travelled to Japan and Hawaii, where there were hundreds of other casualties.
The epicentre of the latest earthquake was in a seismic gap 75 miles off the coast where two plates of the Earth’s crust – the South American and Nazca plates – press against each other under the ocean in the ‘subduction zone’.
The Nazca plate has been moving east at three inches per year and sliding under the South American plate. In places the two plates adhered to each other and stress gradually built up until one area where they were stuck cracked, which is what triggered the latest earthquake.
The quake that devastated Port-au-Prince was caused by a different type of plate boundary. Haiti sits on a fault line between two huge tectonic plates, like Chile, but instead of diving under each other, the great slabs of crust slide past one another. Strain built up along faults at the plate boundaries until its release in the earthquake.
There is a saying: ‘Earthquakes don’t kill people. Buildings collapse because of earthquakes and that kills people.’ That was the case in Haiti. That quake measured seven and there were huge casualties because most of their buildings were not designed to withstand shock.
Any large earthquake also generates aftershocks and that is one concern in Chile – but the greater concern is that it occurred under the ocean and caused a tsunami travelling away from the epicentre which could reach as many as 53 countries that border on the Pacific.
Tsunami waves in the deep ocean travel at about the same speed as a jet and experts estimated this one was travelling at hundreds of miles per hour.
Scientists believe it is total coincidence that there have been several major earthquakes in the past few weeks. But there is a debate about whether an earthquake on the kind of scale we have seen in Chile may eventually – way down the years – influence other fault lines and perhaps trigger an earthquake somewhat earlier than would have been expected or cause an active volcano to go dormant or a dormant volcano to start up.
What we know is that large earthquakes send out waves not detectable by people but picked up thousands of miles away on seismometers. If there is any link between one earthquake and another, it is likely to be very minor. But the lesson is that people in earthquake zones always need to be educated and prepared.
Tsunamis from the deadly 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile rippled across the Japanese coast Sunday as anxious residents remained glued to round-the-clock television coverage.
No injuries were reported, authorities said, but they urged the tens of thousands of evacuees from coastal areas to stay away because waves could gain strength. Citizens and elderly people in wheelchairs flocked into shelters.
"We can never take the optimistic view that just because the first wave has arrived, we are safe," Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said. "Tsunami isn't just the first (wave)."
The first tsunami -- a 4-inch wave -- hit the Pacific island of Minami Torishima, according to the Japanese
A few waves later, the tallest one yet at about 4 feet hit the Kuji Port in Iwate, the meteorological agency said. The northern part of the main island could be hit by a tsunami at least 9 feet high.
Sunday's alert was Japan's first major tsunami warning in more than 15 years, the agency reported. In 1960, a tsunami spawned by Chile's 1960 earthquake killed 140 people in Japan.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center canceled warnings that initially covered the entire Pacific region, leaving only Japan under a widespread tsunami warning.
In the U.S. state of Hawaii, the cancellation occurred nearly two hours after the first waves came ashore. Coast Guard crews said they had found no significant damage to ports or waterways as a result of the tsunami.
But the tsunami center said some coastal areas may see small sea-level changes or unusual currents for the next few hours.
The cancellation "does not mean it is now safe to resume normal activities or re-enter evacuated shoreline areas," the tsunami center said. It said that county civil defense agencies and local police departments would make those determinations.
"There was no assessment of any damage in any county, which is quite remarkable," said Gov. Linda Lingle. "It's just a wonderful day that nothing happened and no one was hurt or injured."
The warning was issued early Saturday after an 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile, killing more than 300 people. Government officials are expected to announce an updated death toll Sunday at 12 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET).
In Chile, tsunami waves came ashore along the coast shortly after the earthquake, U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Victor Sardina said.
The largest was 9 feet near the quake's epicenter, Sardina said.
On the island of Juan Fernandez -- 400 miles (643 km) off Chile's coast -- a large wave killed six people, Provincial Governor Ivan De La Maza said. At least 11 people are missing.
Navigational buoys in Ventura County, California, got minor damage as a result of a 2-foot surge and waves, according to the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center.
The damaged Ady Gil following its confrontation with a Japanese whaling vessel. Photograph: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society/EPA
Paul Watson, head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, shown in this April 14, 2008 file photo, in Sydney, Nova Scotia..
The New Zealand government said on Thursday that whalers and anti-whaling protesters must now put a greater premium on human life.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said the clash must not be allowed to escalate.
"The New Zealand government is totally opposed to Japanese whaling taking place in the Southern (Pacific) Ocean, but we're also opposed to killing human beings down there as well," Radio New Zealand quoted McCully as saying.
"It's quite clear that unless there is some restraint exercise, there is serious risk to human life in that region at the moment," he added.
Maritime New Zealand will meet on Thursday to discuss how an investigation into the collision involving a protest boat and a Japanese security ship in Antarctica will proceed.
Japan's government-backed whaling fleet aims to harpoon up to 935 mink whales and 50 fin whales, classed as endangered, in the Southern Ocean this season, claiming it is for research purposes.
The Ady Gil collided with the security ship Shonan Maru No. 2 near Commonwealth Bay on Wednesday.
The New Zealand-registered vessel is the powerboat previously known as Earthrace, which set a world circumnavigation record.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society claimed the security ship rammed the protesters deliberately.
However, a group representing the Japanese whalers, the Institute of Cetacean Research, said footage of a crash showed the security ship was trying to avoid colliding with the Ady Gil.
The incident was filmed from the Shonan Maru No. 2 and showed that the Ady Gil was stationary, but began to move as the vessels came closer together.
The crash tore about 3 meters off the bow of the Ady Gil, but none of its crew members - five from New Zealand and one from the Netherlands - were hurt. They were rescued by the crew of the Sea Shepherd ship Bob Barker.
High Tech 2 million vessel damaged
The damage inflicted to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) boat the Ady Gil in a collision with a whaling ship is likely to reignite the row over the environmental group's tactics.
Paul Watson, who helped set up Greenpeace in 1972, and now heads the SSCS has been labelled an eco-terrorist and dangerous extremist by his former comrades, with whom he is locked in a long-running feud.
While both groups have targeted the Japanese whale hunts in the Southern Ocean, Greenpeace refuses to co-operate with SSCS by sharing information on the whereabouts of whaling fleets because it says SSCS uses violent tactics. Watson counters this, saying his methods yield results and SSCS has sunk 10 whaling ships, with no injuries caused.
Watson was membership number 008 in Greenpeace. He founded SSCS's forerunner, the Earth Force Society, in 1977, the same year he was voted off Greenpeace's board of directors. There were concerns within Greenpeace over his methods, including an incident when he pulled a club from a sealer's hand and threw it in the water, but Watson claims he left on good terms. However, his departure only highlighted the groups' ideological differences.
In 1986, on being asked what he thought of being labelled an eco-terrorist by Greenpeace, Watson responded by calling them "the Avon Ladies of the environmental movement", something he says they have never forgiven him for. Five years later they agreed to refrain from criticising each other but the truce failed to hold, with each blaming the other for violating it.
The gloves really came off towards the end of 2008. In November of that year, Watson labelled his former organisation "Yellowpeace" for deciding not to send a ship to counter the Japanese whaling fleet. Greenpeace said its campaign had reached the "endgame" and it would instead concentrate on changing public opinion in Japan.
The following month it published a 2,672-word missive on Watson entitled Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace: Some Facts. The article noted that "stories of divisiveness within the ranks of environmental groups distract from the real issues," but then went on to attack Watson on a variety of fronts, even challenging the idea that he was a founding member of Greenpeace, describing him instead as an "early member".
Watson hit back by issuing an even longer rebuttal. In response to Greenpeace's analysis that Japanese whaling would be stopped "by a domestic decision within the Japanese government to do so", he compared the group's attitude to that of "Jewish leaders in the Warsaw ghetto that resulted in the Holocaust".
Before the Ady Gil set sail for Antarctica in December, Watson told the Guardian that Greenpeace's claim he was not a founder member was "Bolshevik revisionism" and said his old organisation was bitter about the success of SSCS. "I think they're angry with us because of the success of Whale Wars [the hit TV series following SSCS in its Antarctic campaign in 2008], because we have actually made a difference," he said.
"We're not a protest organisation … we intervene against illegal activities and as far as we're concerned Japanese whalers are poachers."
Despite – or perhaps because of – his outspoken opinions, Watson has won the support of luminaries including the Dalai Lama, Mick Jagger, Daryl Hannah and Uma Thurman. SSCS even earned the dubious honour of being parodied in the US animated comedy South Park in an episode entitled Whale Whores, where its activists were depicted as "vegan pussies" posing as pirates and Watson got a harpoon through the head. Nevertheless, he proclaimed himself happy with the publicity.
At the beginning of Operation Waltzing Matilda, Watson talked up the impact the Ady Gil, formerly known as Earthrace, would have in confronting whalers. He said the boat, with a top speed of up to 50 knots (58mph) and able to dive under waves completely, would "give us the speed we need to intercept the harpooners. This vessel is twice as fast as a harpoon vessel".
But instead the $1.5m biodiesel-fuelled boat has come a cropper and the incident is likely to provide ammunition for those who criticise his methods.
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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
