New Zealand: Six whales die after mass stranding on remote beach
1d 20h ago by sh.itjust.works/u/HellsBelle in world from www.bbc.com
Six whales have died on a remote beach in New Zealand's South Island following a mass stranding and volunteers are racing against time to get 15 others that are still alive back to the sea.
Some 55 pilot whales washed up on Farewell Spit on Thursday. While most managed to make their way back out to sea, 15 have restranded and are now spread along about 1km (0.6mi) of the beach.
A video from Project Jonah, a non-profit working with marine mammals, showed volunteers pouring buckets of water on the whales to keep them cool.
"When the tide comes in, we're going to have to move really quickly to bring these whales together, then move them out to deeper waters," said Louisa Hawkes from Project Jonah.
The group is calling for volunteers to help with the refloating.
"Whales may be easily deceived and caught out by the gently sloping tidal flats and a rapidly falling tide," the NZ conservation dept said in a statement on Thursday.
That makes sense, i was wondering how it could happen.
Was there an anti submarine exercise nearby by any chance? Sonar tends to disorent sea mammals, causing them to strand on beaches sometimes. I've seen it happen on several occasions (ex navy).
Probably not, Ukraine has a bigger navy than New Zealand and US Navy isn't allowed in NZ territorial waters.
But Australia though?
Wonder if there's a whale version of a UFO cult.