Three pilot whales have died in 24 hours after becoming stranded on Baylys Beach in Northland.
The first two whales were stranded, roughly 300m apart on Monday and later euthanised after a discussion with iwi.
A third whale stranded further along the beach on Tuesday, the Department of Conservation said.
The whale was also euthanised after further discussions with iwi.
“It, too, was buried on site.”
A Baylys Beach resident said one of the whales euthanised was severely injured.
DoC said it don’t know why the strandings occurred.
Baylys Beach Surf Life Saving Club captain Kyran Gillespie told the Advocate he was the one to call the stranding hotline when the first whale was spotted on Monday.
After collecting buckets, hats and towels, his team got stuck in to buy time until someone qualified could help.
Gillespie has attended several strandings and said he had done some training with Project Jonah.
“I took over until DoC turned up, just making sure everyone did the basic — keeping them wet, getting the towels on, uprighting the whales,” he explained.
Mark Buckingham, who was visiting family, was told by a local surfer about 1.30pm on Monday that a pilot whale had washed up.
There were a few people “keen to get stuck in” and aid the stranded creature, but the rain and high tide made it difficult for others to access the group, he said.
Buckingham estimated the whale was about 4m long. By the time the tide started going out, more people had arrived to help.
He then went further up the beach and found another stranded whale about 1km up — this one about 3m in length.
“It was in a pretty bad way,” Buckingham said.
He ventured further up the beach to check there were no other strandings before making his way back.
The first whale was successfully refloated by members of the public, however, Buckingham said it “wasn’t looking too good” and eventually re-stranded.
After discussions with iwi, both whales were euthanised.
“Due to the sea conditions, the health of the two whales, length of time they were on the beach, it was decided to euthanise both,” DoC said.
Both whales were also buried on site.
Buckingham estimated at least a couple of hundred people had been in attendance over a few hours.
He said realising there was no hope was “pretty hard to take” after hours of effort.
Gillespie said although it was sobering, he had tried to have “realistic expectations” of the stranding.
“There was a really high possibility they were going to get euthanised anyway,” he said.
All three whales are believed to be from the same pod of about 10-12 whales visible offshore on Monday.
Baylys Beach is a small section of Ripiro Beach, which is the longest west coast beach in New Zealand.
It’s located in the Kaipara district near Dargaville.
Brodie Stone is the education and general news reporter at the Advocate. Brodie has spent most of her life in Whangārei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.
The circumstances around the death are being treated as unexplained.