Eleven (11) of 58 Stranded Pilot Whales Saved (VIDEO)
A pod of 58 pilot whales were found stranded on the white sands of a New Zealand beach on Friday morning.
Most of them had died by the time locals alerted the NZ Department of Conservation, and initial attempts to refloat 11 survivors on Friday were hampered by heavy rain.
One volunteer reported that "We had to identify the live whales by putting flagging tape on them, so that the people coming down onto the beach actually only focused on the live whales."
On Saturday, the survivors were transported by trailers and trucks to a nearby beach where rescuers and volunteers successfully returned them to sea.
There had been no sign of the rescued whales returning to shore on Sunday, the department said.
In 2007, 101 pilot whales stranded on the same beach.
DoC spokesperson Sioux Campbell said there was no explanation for why mass strandings were common on New Zealand shores.
"Sometimes what happens is one of the whales is sick and because they live in very close societies the others will follow," she said.
"Sometimes they just get lost; we think that their radar gets confused."
"For pilot whales, because they commonly mass strand like this, it's an irony around their name really."
Pilot whales are members of the dolphin family but are considered by experts to behave more like whales.
Most of them had died by the time locals alerted the NZ Department of Conservation, and initial attempts to refloat 11 survivors on Friday were hampered by heavy rain.
One volunteer reported that "We had to identify the live whales by putting flagging tape on them, so that the people coming down onto the beach actually only focused on the live whales."
On Saturday, the survivors were transported by trailers and trucks to a nearby beach where rescuers and volunteers successfully returned them to sea.
There had been no sign of the rescued whales returning to shore on Sunday, the department said.
In 2007, 101 pilot whales stranded on the same beach.
DoC spokesperson Sioux Campbell said there was no explanation for why mass strandings were common on New Zealand shores.
"Sometimes what happens is one of the whales is sick and because they live in very close societies the others will follow," she said.
"Sometimes they just get lost; we think that their radar gets confused."
"For pilot whales, because they commonly mass strand like this, it's an irony around their name really."
Pilot whales are members of the dolphin family but are considered by experts to behave more like whales.
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