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 ...
In before it’s blamed on 1) climate change, 2)Trump, or 3) Russians.
YOU ARE WAAAY TOO LATE!..............................
Transgenders?
I have heard that whale steaks are extremely so tender you can cut them with a fork, and taste like fish.......................
Trans-Evolutionary.....................
Climate Change
Hahaha!!!
Natural culling of the pod perhaps.
If you're a true believer in the religion of climate change, you conveniently have built-in explanations for anything and everything that doesn't go according to your world-view.
Don't be surprised when the Left to blames these whale deaths on climate change....human-caused climate change.
So it's not Mother Nature that caused these beached whales to die. It was your conservative neighbor who BBQs and drives a big SUV.
The Left is pretty busy right now blaming Trump for anything and everything that doesn't go according to their world-view.
I'm sure they'll get around to combining the two issues by blaming Trump for climate change getting worse and killing the dead whales. They're good at the blame game.
Pilot whales lost their way?
Ironic.
**Contributing factors can include “sickness, navigational error, geographical features, a rapidly falling tide, being chased by a predator, or extreme weather,”...**
Pilot whales are chased by predators?
There is no empirical evidence to support that claim. Science Fiction!
Whales are sooo... stupid.
I’ve read that the true North is changing. If this is the case the internal compasses are screwed up in birds and whales so they end up in the wrong spot.
Ban all assault beaches now!
This stinks.
True north does not change. Magnetic north, on the other hand, has been drifting ever since we knew how to make and use magnetic compasses.
*sad ping*
you think they will remove using dynamite?
you forgot left blaming on sonar and/or shipping
Hey, they're called pilot whales, not GPS whales.
On Sunday, 10 pygmy killer whales were found stranded on Ninety Mile Beach
Pygmies must be relieved.
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