Beached whales shot to prevent 'long, painful death'

Wildlife officers shot 41 pilot whales beached on New Zealand’s South Island, ending their suffering after the sea was deemed to rough to try to rescue them.

Forty-nine whales came ashore on Saturday near Farewell Spit in the second major stranding in the area within two weeks. Eight died on the beaches and the remaining mammals were shot when heavy seas prevented any attempt to refloat them.

“Given the hopelessness of being able to successfully refloat the whales, our prime concern was then to avoid the whales suffering a long and painful death,” Greg Napp, the Conservation Department’s Golden Bay area officer, said.

Napp said the latest stranding was probably not connected to another stranding last month when 129 pilot whales came ashore nearby. Conservation officers and volunteers managed to refloat more than 100 in that incident, but 21 whales died.

Mike Rogers, a Department of Conservation worker, said the whales that beached on Saturday were not thought to be from the pod involved in the larger stranding on December 20.

“There have always been strandings at Golden Bay,” he said. The tide goes out as much as four miles and the animals “get trapped on this gentle sloping beach”.