New Zealand helped the pilot whales to return to sea, volunteers and activists from the different organisations have gathered on Ninety Mile Beach to re-float six stranded mammals.
After pilot whales were returned to the water, the experts expressed hope that they will swim away into deeper water. On Sunday, 10 pygmy killer whales were found stranded at Ninety Mile Beach on North Island. Two of the whales later died there without their native environment, while the crews transported other mammals on hay-lined trailers to Rarawa Beach on the opposite coast of the peninsula, where the sea conditions were calmer.
Jamie Werner of Department of Conservation said the rescue operation was a really hard this time. When huge mammals were then placed in a tidal stream to relieve the pressure on their bodies, they were moved onto the sand again, where volunteers kept a vigil through the night, regularly cooling them with water.
On Tuesday afternoon, the remaining whales were swimming about 400 metres from the shoreline at last. the ecological experts and rangers will continue to be monitored until pilot whales swim into deeper water. The crews were hoping for a better outcome than in an unrelated stranding over the weekend in which 145 pilot whales died.
The reason for whales’ recent stranding is still unclear, probably, the mammals’ navigation system failed.
