Status: 11.10.2022 11:45 a.m
Hundreds of pilot whales have again stranded on the beaches of New Zealand’s Chatham Islands. To avoid further suffering, the animals were euthanized. More than 200 pilot whales died nearby on Saturday.
Hundreds more pilot whales have stranded on the beaches of New Zealand’s Chatham Archipelago in the South Pacific. In order to spare them further suffering, around 240 animals were euthanized, said the New Zealand Ministry of the Environment.
The mass stranding happened on Pitt Island in the South Pacific, more than 800 kilometers from the east coast of New Zealand. Around 200 animals were stranded on a beach on the Chatham Islands on Friday and later euthanized.
Whales stranded in the area can rarely be brought back to deeper water by rescuers, whale conservation organization Project Jonah said. “It’s an incredibly isolated and remote part of the world with a small population.”
Sociability as a possible cause of death
Pilot whales can grow up to six meters long. They are known to be very sociable and may therefore follow fellow animals who are in danger. Mass strandings like this are not uncommon in the Chatham Islands archipelago, several hundred kilometers east of New Zealand.
Almost 200 whales died on a remote beach in the state of Tasmania in Australia about two weeks ago. The authorities there managed to guide 44 of the marine mammals back into the water.