Almost 30 dead animals
Dozens of pilot whales stranded and died off the coast of New Zealand
Beached whales are not uncommon in New Zealand (icon image)
© Malcolm Pullman / Picture Alliance
On the South Island of New Zealand, at the Farewell Spit, marine mammals land on land again and again. More than 30 whales stranded there on Thursday.
More than two dozen pilot whales have stranded and died off the coast of New Zealand. Twenty-nine of the 34 marine mammals were already dead when game wardens found them Thursday on the remote South Island promontory, Farewell Spit, the conservation agency said.
Game wardens are now caring for the five surviving whales, a spokesman for the agency said. However, he pointed out that “the whales haven’t been in the water for a while now.”
New Zealand: Scientists puzzled
There have been at least ten mass strandings of whales in the past 15 years on the Farewell Spit, about 90 kilometers west of the tourist town of Nelson. Among other things, almost 700 whales stranded there in February 2017, of which 250 died.
Scientists are puzzled as to why such deadly incidents keep happening on the headland. According to one theory, it could be because the water is particularly shallow at this point, which interferes with the bionsonar of the animals.