Almost all of a group of about 300 pilot whales stranded on a remote beach on New Zealand's southernmost main island have died, conservation officials said on Thursday. It was the second largest beaching in New Zealand on record, conservation department spokesman Dave Taylor told the New Zealand Press Association. A hunting party found the whales beached at remote Doughboy Bay in the southwest of Stewart Island late on Wednesday. The remoteness of the site was inhibiting conservation officers from assisting the remaining whales, Taylor said.
Pilot whales are widespread in the Pacific.
They travel in large herds of several hundred and have a tendency to strand in groups in shallow sandy bays, with several such events in the Pacific region during most years. Mass stranding a mystery Having found out about the whales from a group of hunters late on Wednesday, department staff flew over the site at dawn on Thursday and found only 60 still alive. CNN's Wayne Gray describes the whales' plight Windows Media 28K 56K Eighteen more had died by late that morning, they said. Samples would be taken from the dead whales in an effort to determine the cause of the stranding. The mass stranding is the second by whales traveling in the Tasman Sea within two weeks.