Race is on to save 400 stranded whales in New Zealand
Farewell Spit, New Zealand
A heartbreaking event is unfolding in New Zealand as 400 whales have beached themselves. Roughly 275 of the pilot whales had already passed away as Cheree Morrison, and two friends, found them at the Northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island.
“You could hear the sounds of splashing, of blowholes being cleared, of sighing,” Morrison said. “The young ones were the worst. Crying is the only way to describe it.”
“The young ones were the worst. Crying is the only way to describe it.”
Within a few hours, locals amassed in the hundreds to help keep the remaining 140 or so whales alive in what is one worst whale strandings in recorded history.
Moving the large animals back out to the ocean is proving to be a significant barrier, with as many as half of the rescued whales managing to beach themselves once again, the New Zealand Herald reported.
While many are blaming nearby seismic blasting as a potential driver to the mass beaching, local officials were quick to dismiss that notion.
