48 stranded whales die on New Zealand coas

WireUpdate:  FAREWELL SPIT, NEW ZEALAND (BNO NEWS) -- At least 48 pilot whales have died after a group of nearly 100 whales stranded on the coast of New Zealand on late Monday morning, officials said on Wednesday. Dozens remain stranded.

Department of Conservation (DoC) Golden Bay Area manager John Mason said the pod of 99 pilot whales stranded themselves at around 11 a.m. local time on Monday during outgoing tide at the base of Farewell Spit in Golden Bay, located on the northern end of the country's South Island.

By Monday evening, 22 of the pilot whales had died while 16 others managed to refloat and are believed to be safe. As of Wednesday morning, Mason said 35 of the whales remain stranded while a total of 48 others have died.

Around 200 volunteers and DoC workers have been working around the clock to keep the whales wet, covering them with wet sheets to protect them from the sun, and push the survivors back into the sea. "We are trying to encourage them to swim out to sea," Mason said.

Mason said the rescue attempts have so far been unsuccessful. "The whales have been quite directional and haven't wanted to leave the area," he said. "So since the stranding, they've been refloated four times, but they haven't really moved anywhere much. They have moved a few hundred meters (feet) in either direction over each high tide cycle."

Pilot whales work as a close-knit community and need to be in agreement with one another to make a move, making it more difficult for the rescue workers to save them. "The chances [for their survival] certainly diminish each time you try [to refloat them] and are unsuccessful," Mason said. "They are still not showing a lot of exclamation to move off. So, while the whales are in a reasonable condition, we really can't get them to move offshore into deeper water."

Golden Bay is one of New Zealand's most notorious spots for whale strandings. Earlier this month, 18 whales died after a pod of 25 whales beached about 2 kilometers (1.2 mile) from this week's incident.