97 whales, 3 dolphins die of mass stranding in New Zealand
The Department of Conservation said that they were notified on Sunday about the mass stranding that resulted in the death of 97 whales and 3 dolphins.
New Delhi(Wellington), 25/11: A mass stranding resulted in the death of 97 pilot whales and 3 bottlenose dolphins at the remote Chatham Islands, about 400 kilometers from the eastern coast of New Zealand. As per the sources, they were stranded by the weekend, but the remoteness of the island hampered greatly to the rescue efforts.
“Only 26 of the whales were still alive at this point, the majority of them appearing very weak, and were euthanised due to the rough sea conditions and almost certainty of there being great white sharks in the water which are brought in by a stranding like this,” said New Zealand’s Department of Conservation(DOC) Biodiversity Ranger Jemma Welch.
The Chatham Islands is no stranger to mass strandings as about 1,000 sea animals died on the island in a stranding in 1918. Mass whale strandings still remain a mystery to modern biologists, and there have been several records of it in modern history. Australia saw another mass stranding in the month of September where several hundred whales died. The incident occurred in the shallow waters off the Australian coast and is to date one of the biggest whale strandings ever recorded.
