Nearby New Zealand and neighbouring Australia are hot spots for mass whale strandings owing to large colonies of pilot whales living in the deep oceans surrounding both island nations. The Chatham Island stranding occurred on Saturday, and also involved surviving pilot whales being euthanised. Grover said given the position of the archipelago near where subtropical and sub-Antarctic oceans meet there was an abundance of sea life in the area which attracted the likes of whales. Around 800 people live on the larger Chatham Island, with 40 people living on Pitt Island. The Pitt Island and Chatham Island make up the Chatham Islands archipelago which lies about 840 kilometres (521.95 miles) off the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island. The conservation department does not try to refloat whales in the area due to the risk of shark attack to both humans and whales, he said.ĭaren Grover, general manager at charity Project Jonah, which deals with stranded whales, said there were also not enough people in the area to help with refloating. “This decision is never taken lightly, but in cases like this it is the kindest option,” Lundquist said. "Nature is a great recycler and all the energy stored within the bodies of all the whales will be returned to nature quite quickly," he said.WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand’s conservation office on Tuesday said all 240 pilot whales stranded on the remote Pitt Island have died, just days after 215 whales died on a beach on nearby Chatham Island.ĭave Lundquist, marine technical advisor at the Department of Conservation, in an email said a technical team on Monday had assessed the situation and euthanised the surviving whales. The tide can then drop from below them and before they know it, they're stranded on the beach."īecause of the remote location of the beaches, the whale carcasses won't be buried or towed out to sea, as is often the case, but instead will be left to decompose, Grover said.
"They come closer and closer to shore and become disoriented. "They rely on their echolocation and yet it doesn't tell them that they are running out of water," Grover said. Grover said there is a lot of food for the whales around the Chatham Islands, and as they swim closer to land, they would quickly find themselves going from very deep to shallow water. Scientists don't know exactly what causes the whales to strand, although it appears their location systems can get confused by gently sloping sandy beaches. Mass strandings of pilot whales are reasonably common in New Zealand, especially during the summer months. Scientists say gently sloping beaches can confuse whales' location systems "We do not actively refloat whales on the Chatham Islands due to the risk of shark attack to humans and the whales themselves, so euthanasia was the kindest option," said Dave Lundquist, a technical marine advisor for the conservation department. Grover said the remote location and presence of sharks in the surrounding waters meant they couldn't mobilize volunteers to try to refloat the whales as they have in past stranding events.
"Although they are natural occurrences, they are still sad and difficult for those helping." "These events are tough, challenging situations," the Department of Conservation wrote in a Facebook post. The deaths come two weeks after about 200 pilot whales died in Australia after stranding themselves on a remote Tasmanian beach. Leveraging the Unity engine, Stranded Deep does a grand job of showcasing its idyllic desert island setting with aplomb, as crystal blue coral waters lap lazily against sandy beaches, while the. The Department of Conservation said 232 whales stranded themselves Friday at Tupuangi Beach and another 245 at Waihere Bay on Monday. The whales beached themselves on the Chatham Islands, which are home to about 600 people and located about 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of New Zealand's main islands. None of the stranded whales could be refloated and all either died naturally or were euthanized in a "heartbreaking" loss, said Daren Grover, the general manager of Project Jonah, a nonprofit group which helps rescue whales. WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Some 477 pilot whales have died after stranding themselves on two remote New Zealand beaches over recent days, officials say. A string of dead pilot whales line the beach at Tupuangi Beach in New Zealand's Chatham Archipelago, on Saturday.
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