Another terrible whales stranding

More than 140 pilot whales, from the genus Glopicephala, died after being stranded in Mason Bay, a remote beach on Steward Island, an island located 30 km south of the New Zealand’s South Island: a strip of land of just under 2 thousand square km of area, inhabited by about 400 people. The Department of Conservation was alerted about the stranding on Saturday night and half of the whales were already dead when they were found, how explained the operations director of the department, Ren Leppens. «Unfortunately, the chances of successfully returning the remaining whales to the sea were extremely low,» said Leppens. «The remote location, the lack of available staff and the worsening conditions of cetaceans have meant that the most human treatment was euthanasia». «However, it is always a harrowing decision,» he added.

Leppens then said that over the weekend, a group of ten pygmy killer whales, called Feresa Attenuata, ran aground on another beach, while there were two other cases of single whale stretches. «Cases are unlikely to be connected, but the stretches are relatively “common" in New Zealand,» Leppens continued. In March, 150 whales had been found for the most part dead or dying on Australian beaches 350 km south of Perth. Then the shark alert had also drawn attention to social networks on a frequent phenomenon but never fully understood by scholars.

There are 10 stranded pigmy whales south of Te Paki Stream, Northland. We were advised late on Sunday and have had a ranger on site since first light this morning monitoring the situation. Public support may be requested after an assessment has been done. pic.twitter.com/4e8zXxztOv

— Department of Conservation (@docgovtnz) 25 novembre 2018