100 whales die stranded in New Zealand

Wellington, Feb 14 (IANS/EFE) Specialists and volunteers are trying to save some 60 pilot whales stranded near Golden Bay on the South Island of New Zealand, after approximately 100 more of them died, media reports said Saturday.

The whales were part of a pod of 198 that ran aground Friday on a sandy area known as Farewell Spit, where some 200 volunteers managed to refloat most of them with the aid of the tide, but the cetaceans were unable to return to the high seas.

The spokesperson for the New Zealand department of conservation, Andrew Lamason, said on Radio New Zealand that 103 of the marine mammals have died and that volunteers are trying to keep them wet and in position until the high tide comes in again.

Lamason said they have not dismissed practicing euthansia on the whales if they begin to suffer too much stress.

Scores of whales are left stranded every year in that area of New Zealand, whose waters form part of the route that pilot whales take when they migrate from the Antarctic at this time of year and when they return to Antarctic waters in September.

This cetacean, also known as the common Calderon, has a bulbous head and robust body that measures from six to seven metres long.

--IANS/EFE

vr/vd