250 pilot whales die after stranding on New Zealand beach

Oct. 8 () –

Some 250 pilot whales have died after running aground on a beach in New Zealand’s Chatham Islands, the Department of Conservation has confirmed.

The whales were alive, but given the impossibility of returning them to the water, most have been sacrificed, according to the Department, quoted by the New Zealand news portal Stuff.

“We do not actively refloat whales in the Chatham Islands due to the risk of shark attack to both humans and the whales themselves,” a spokesperson for the agency said. “The surviving whales have been euthanized by the professional team to spare them further suffering,” he added.

The bodies of cetaceans have been abandoned on the beaches for a natural process of decomposition.

The marine mammal rescue NGO Proyecto Johan has published information on 215 stranded whales on Facebook, but also recognizes the impossibility of their rescue.

“The Chatham Islands is a difficult point for the response. They are known for great white sharks, inaccessible beaches and a population of less than 800 people (…). It was not an option,” the group pointed out on Facebook.

The Chatham Islands are a frequent scene of the death of stranded whales. In 1918 the largest event of this type was recorded with some 1,000 dead pilot whales. In 2018, 51 pilot whales died after stranding in Hanson Bay. Then about thirty were able to return to the sea by their own means.

In 2017 there were about 600 that ran aground on Farewell Spit in the South Island of New Zealand and the Army, volunteers and Project Jonah managed to rescue about 400.