No link between whale strandings, says DOC

Two large strandings of pilot whales at Farewell Spit in less than a fortnight are probably unconnected, the Department of Conservation (DOC) says.

Nearly 50 long-finned pilot whales died on Saturday after stranding on the northwestern tip of the South Island.

DOC said the whales were not thought to be from the pod of 129 that stranded on Puponga Beach, near the base of Farewell Spit, 12 days ago.

Twenty-one of the animals that stranded on December 20 died on the beach, but a massive rescue effort by hundreds of volunteers and DOC staff managed to refloat 100 the next day.
However, it was considered too dangerous to attempt to refloat the 49 whales that stranded on the tip of the spit on New Year's Eve.

DOC Golden Bay acting area manager Greg Napp said a DOC ranger spotted the stranded whales about 1.15pm. Eight of the animals died within a few hours of stranding.

The remaining 41 whales were shot to end their suffering.

Any attempt to refloat the whales would have been dangerous for people involved and was likely to have been unsuccessful, Mr Napp said.

"Given the hopelessness of being able to successfully refloat the whales, our prime concern was then to avoid the whales suffering a long and painful death."

DOC worker Mike Rogers said today there had been no reports of any more strandings overnight.

He said it was rare for two strandings to occur so close together, but not unheard of.

"There were a couple close together about five years ago....

"I doubt there is any connection between them [the two latest strandings] though," he said.

"There have always been strandings at Golden Bay.

"It's very sheltered, but the tide goes out a very long way -- up to 5 or 6km -- and so they get trapped on this gentle sloping beach."

New Zealand has recorded over 5000 whale strandings.

It is not known exactly why they beach themselves, but theories range from pods following a sick or disoriented leader, the pod trying to help a young whale stranded by accident or the whales' sonar navigation signals being disrupted by sand or mud.

The biggest recorded mass stranding involved 1000 pilot whales on the Chatham Islands in 1918, and the biggest in more recent years affected 450 of the same species on Great Barrier Island in 1985.

Rescuers successfully refloated 324 in that case.

- NZPA