Posted on 11/26/2018 12:19:32 PM PST by Red Badger
As many as 145 whales have died after being found stranded on a remote beach in New Zealand, conservation officials said Monday.
Two pods of pilot whales were discovered just over a mile apart on Mason Bay, Stewart Island, a sparsely populated island in the country's south. Authorities were first alerted to the mass stranding by a hiker Saturday evening. Half of the whales were already dead. The remaining animals were later euthanized, according to New Zealand's Department of Conservation (DOC). A Stewart Island operations manager for the DOC, Ren Leppens, said that the remote location and condition of the surviving whales made it impossible to save them. He described the decision as "heart-breaking."
"Sadly, the likelihood of being able to successfully re-float the remaining whales was extremely low," Leppens said in a statement. "The remote location, lack of nearby personnel and the whales' deteriorating condition meant the most humane thing to do was to euthanize." The DOC also announced that it was working with a local Maori tribe on the "next steps." In New Zealand, Maori groups are often involved in dismantling and burying the remains of beached whales in accordance with indigenous traditions. The incident is one of a series of recent whale strandings in New Zealand. On Sunday, 10 pygmy killer whales were found stranded on Ninety Mile Beach, in the country's North Island. Two have since died, with efforts still underway to "re-float" the remaining creatures. The DOC said that it responds to an average of 85 stranding incidents a year, although most involve single marine mammals rather than entire pods. The exact reasons why whales and dolphins become stranded are not fully understood. Contributing factors can include "sickness, navigational error, geographical features, a rapidly falling tide, being chased by a predator, or extreme weather,"...
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Biomass fertilizer.
I’m not bigoted but I can’t see why hiring whales
as pilots is any kind of a good idea.
A mass stranding? They went to mass and now they are all dead? I tell you this pope is absolutely out of control!
You’re not just saying that because they are black, are ya?
Standby!
Cue the “Blame it on Climate Change (made worse by Donald Trump refusing to sign the Paris accord!” in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ....
Pilot to copilot..,
Were the pilots female?
Totally Bush’s....uh...I mean Trump’s fault.
There have been DEEP EARTHQUAKES in NEW ZEALAND...
I blame Trump! j/k
Last year, there were pictures posted of a massive whale hunt in the Faroe Islands (Off Greenland)
Everyone in the community comes together, men in boats push schools of whales toward the beach where they are systematically slaughtered en masse.
American animal rights whacko’s decry this needless slaughter of beautiful whales. Notwithstanding, Faroe Islanders depend on whale blubber and other part of the whale for their very sustenance.
My daughter has a friend who lives there. It looks like a beautiful place to visit and an interesting way of life. Very similar to eskimo’s I would think.
Sounds like the first pilot was drunk and beached all his followers...........
There is a theory that the lead whales may have some infection that causes them to lose their steering ability....................
pilot error
Pilot error...................
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