110 beached whales refloated in New Zealand

Conservation workers and volunteers used a high tide today to refloat about 110 pilot whales from a beach where they became stranded a day earlier on New Zealand’s South Island. At least 15 others died, a conservation official said.

Volunteers in the rescue included tourists from as far afield as China and Germany, many of whom had never seen whales before. Some of them were reminded of the New Zealand-made film Whale Rider about rescuing a stranded whale.