New Zealand: 215 pilot whales stranded and died
200 pilot whales were stranded and died off the Chatham Islands, 840 km east of New Zealand. The whales that were still alive were killed when they were discovered by the Nature Conservancy.
More than 200 pioneer whales have died after becoming stranded on a New Zealand island, according to conservationists. Conservation Project Jonah said on its Facebook page on Saturday that several animals, also known as pilot whales, had already died when they were discovered northwest of the main island of Chatham.
“The Chatham Islands is a difficult place to deal with: they are known for great white sharks, very remote beaches and a population of less than 800 people,” the New Zealand organization working to protect and rescue whales and dolphins wrote. The circumstances meant that the whales that were still alive when they were discovered had to be euthanized by the nature conservation authority. “While we’ve always hoped that surviving whales could get back into the water, that wasn’t an option here.”
The Chatham Islands are located about 840 kilometers east of the two main islands of New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean. Whale threads are unfortunately not uncommon there. More than 1,000 animals died in the largest stranding ever recorded in 1918.
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