In New Zealand: Dozens of pilot whales are stranded and dead
Several pilot whales are stranded on the coast of New Zealand. The game rangers found the animals in the Farewell Spit. There were only a few marine mammals alive.
More than twenty pilot whales were stranded and died off the coast of New Zealand. The Environmental Conservation Agency said 29 of the 34 marine mammals had already died when game rangers found them Thursday in a remote area of the South Island, the Farewell Spit.
A spokesperson for the agency said the game’s rangers are now looking after the five surviving whales. But he noted, “the whales haven’t been in the water for a while.”
Already some group chains
There have been at least ten mass strandings of whales in the past fifteen years at Farewell Spit, about 90 kilometers west of the tourist town of Nelson. Among other things, about 700 whales were stranded there in February 2017, of which 250 died.
Scientists are puzzled as to why such fatal accidents continue to occur on the tongue. According to one theory, the reason could be that the water is especially shallow at this point, which interferes with the animal’s biosonar.
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