240 pilot whales have died after being stranded on a New Zealand island
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – About 240 pilot whales washed up on New Zealand’s Pitt Island in the South Pacific have died, some of them euthanized, New Zealand’s Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday.
A few days earlier, 215 cetaceans had died on neighboring Chatham Island, a frequent phenomenon in this geographical area, to this day unexplained.
The DOC team assessed the situation on Monday and decided to euthanize the remaining whales, Dave Lundquist, a department official, said in an email.
He stressed that “this decision is not taken easily, but in such cases it is the softest option.”
Whales stranded in this area are not released due to the presence of sharks, which are dangerous to humans and mammals.
The Pitt and Chatham Islands, which make up the Chatham Islands archipelago, lie near the meeting point of subtropical and subarctic waters, providing whales with abundant marine wildlife, says Darren Grover, CEO of the NGO Project Jonah, which takes care of the stranded. . whales.
(Reporting by Lucy Kremer; French reporting by Lena Golovnia; Editing by Sophie Lewitt)
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