Volunteers and conservation staff were on Tuesday battling to save more than 120 pilot whales stranded on a beach on the South Island of New Zealand.
The whales became stranded on Puponga Beach near Farewell Spit in the north of the South Island early on Tuesday afternoon as the tide went out, said John Mason, the local manager of the Department of Conservation.
The whales were being kept damp with buckets of water and wet sheets, Mason told National Radio. However, it would be too dangerous for the staff and volunteers to remain on the beach overnight, he added.
”It’s really too dangerous to have people in the sea with the whales,” Mason said.
It was hoped some of the whales would refloat themselves at high tide early on Wednesday morning. – AFP
