477 whales die in ‘heartbreaking’ New Zealand strandings!

About 477 pilot whales have died after drifting off two remote New Zealand beaches in recent days, officials said.

None of the stranded whales could be refloated and all died naturally or were euthanized in a “tragic” loss, said Darren Grover, general manager of Project Juna, a nonprofit group that helps save whales.

Whale beaches on the Chatham Islands, which are home to about 600 people and are located 800 kilometers (500 mi) east of New Zealand’s main islands.

The Department of Conservation said 232 whales were stranded on Friday at Tupuangi Beach and another 245 whales were stranded in Weher Bay on Monday.

The deaths come two weeks after nearly 200 pilot whales died in Australia after stranded on a remote Tasmanian beach.

“These events are difficult and challenging situations,” the Conservation Department wrote in a Facebook post. “Although they are normal events, they are still sad and difficult for those who help.”

Grover said the remote location and the sharks’ presence in the surrounding waters meant they couldn’t mobilize volunteers to try to refloat the whales as they did in past strandings.

“We are not actively refloating whales in the Chatham Islands due to the risk of sharks attacking humans and the whales themselves, so euthanasia was the best option,” said Dave Lundquist, marine technical advisor with the Department of Environmental Conservation.

Mass strandings of pilot whales are reasonably common in New Zealand, especially during the summer months. Scientists don’t know exactly what causes whales to drift off, although it appears their positioning systems can be muddled by gently sloping sandy beaches.

There is plenty of food for whales around the Chatham Islands, Grover said, and as they swim closer to land, they’ll quickly find themselves moving from very deep to shallow waters.

“They rely on their echolocation and yet it doesn’t tell them they’re running out of water,” Grover said. “They’re getting closer and closer to shore and getting disoriented. The tides can then come in from below them and before they know it, they’re stranded on the shore.”

Because of the shorelines’ remote location, Grover said, the whale carcasses would not be buried or dragged out to sea, as is often the case, but instead would be left to decompose.

“Nature is a great way to recycle and all the energy stored in the bodies of all whales will return to nature very quickly,” he said.

Copyright © 2022 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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