Over 100 pilot whales die after stranding in NZ
Date: 10-Jan-03
Country: NEW ZEALAND
A pod of 159 whales was found on a beach on Stewart Island, about 30 km (20 miles) south of the South Island, this week but only 39 were successfully refloated, Department of Conservation spokesman Tom O'Connor said.
"We suspect that they were dead and dying before we got there. The ones we got off the beach, some of them were quite sunburnt and very distressed. They had been there probably for two tides," he said.
The whales look like dolphins and can grow up to five metres (16 feet) long and weigh as much as three tonnes.
New Zealand has one of the world's highest rates of whale strandings, which are thought to occur when the animals become disoriented or when a dominant animal leads others ashore.
