Wellington:
Rescuers have been racing Monday to save dozens of pilot whales that beached on a stretch of New Zealand coast notorious for mass strandings, wildlife officials mentioned.
The Department of Conservation (DOC) mentioned the pod of 49 extended-finned pilot whales was identified early Monday at Farewell Spit, about 90 kilometres (55 miles) north of the South Island tourist town of Nelson.
By mid-afternoon, nine of the whales had died and more than 60 people today have been working to maintain the survivors alive for an try to refloat them at higher tide, the DOC mentioned.
“Marine mammal medics will assist with refloating the whales and caring for them on the beach, keeping them cool and wet until they can be refloated,” a DOC spokeswoman mentioned.
Farewell Spit is a 26-kilometre hook of sand that protrudes into the sea at Golden Bay.
It has been the scene of at least 10 pilot whale strandings in the previous 15 years, the most current in February 2017, when pretty much 700 of the marine mammals beached, resulting in 250 deaths.
Scientists are unclear as to why the beach is so deadly, even though one theory is that the spit creates a shallow seabed in the bay that interferes with the whales’ sonar navigation systems.
(This story has not been edited by TheSpuzz employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)