Six whales die after mass stranding on remote New Zealand beach

Six pilot whales have died following a mass stranding on a remote beach in New Zealand’s South Island, as volunteers race against time to return 15 surviving whales to the sea, according to the BBC, citing Project Jonah.

Around 55 pilot whales washed up on Farewell Spit on Thursday. While most were able to swim back out to sea, 15 later restranded and are now spread across roughly one kilometre of beach.

Video footage released by Project Jonah showed volunteers pouring buckets of water over the whales to keep them cool while rescue preparations continued.

“When the tide comes in, we’re going to have to move really quickly to bring these whales together, then move them out to deeper waters,” Project Jonah spokesperson Louisa Hawkes said.

Pilot whales are highly social animals with a strong instinct to stay together. Rescuers hope to regroup the stranded whales into a tight cluster to help them reorient and swim out collectively, Hawkes added.

Volunteers plan to attempt refloating the whales later in the day, but the operation is time-sensitive. “We have to do all of that before the tide turns and drops again,” she said.

Project Jonah has issued a call for additional volunteers to assist with the refloating effort.

New Zealand’s Department of Conservation has deployed rangers, along with a boat and a drone, to Farewell Spit to monitor the situation and watch for any further strandings.

Mass strandings are relatively common at Farewell Spit, located at the northern tip of the South Island. The conservation department describes the area as a naturally occurring “whale trap” situated along a migratory route for long-finned pilot whales.

“Whales may be easily deceived and caught out by the gently sloping tidal flats and a rapidly falling tide,” the department said in a statement.

In February 2017, more than 400 long-finned pilot whales stranded at Farewell Spit, marking the largest such event in New Zealand in over a century.