KEY POINTS:
Department of Conservations staff are keeping fingers crossed they have seen the last of a pod of pilot whales after two strandings in two days off the Northland coast.
A further 17 pilot whales stranded and died near Marsden Point yesterday. a day after 37 whales died in the same area.
DOC said a flyover of the region today had found no sign of the whales that survived and were shepherded out to sea by hundreds of volunteers last night.
Officials were now cautiously optimistic that the whales would not return a third time.
- NZPA
