After more than 200 pilot whales perished on the New Zealand island of Chatham, around 240 are now stranded on a more remote island. To reduce the suffering of the animals, most of the marine mammals are euthanized. The reason for the mass strandings is still unclear.
Almost 240 more pilot whales have died after being stranded on a remote New Zealand island. The marine mammals got lost on Pitt Island in the South Pacific more than 800 kilometers off the east coast of New Zealand on Monday, the country’s conservation authority said. Around 240 pilot whales died on neighboring Chatham Island on Saturday.
Some of the whales were dead when they arrived, but the rest needed to be euthanized to minimize suffering, said Dave Lundquist, an adviser to the agency. In the region, rescuers would not actively return the marine mammals to the water “because of the risk of shark attacks on humans and the whales themselves, so euthanasia was the most humane solution.”
Pitt Island is New Zealand’s most remote inhabited island, with limited communications and difficult logistics, according to the agency. According to the whale protection organization Project Jonah, with a total of almost 480 dead whales within a few days, it was one of the largest strandings in the Pacific state. “At Farewell Spit (on the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island) mass strandings are frequent, but the average is 70 to 80 whales.” The helpers would try to save the animals if this was possible.
In New Zealand it happens again and again that whales get lost on beaches. Such events are also not uncommon on the Chatham Islands, which includes Pitt Island. In 1918 more than 1000 animals are said to have died in a single stranding.
The whales, which can be up to six meters long, are considered very sociable animals and may follow fellow animals who are in danger. However, the exact reason for the mass strandings has not yet been clarified.
