New Zealanders help to save 30 whales after a pod strands on a beach

Rescuers rope off an area around a dead pilot whale that was stranded on Ruakaka Beach (Nikki Hartley/New Zealand Department Of Conservation via AP)

More than 30 pilot whales stranded on a beach in New Zealand have been safely returned to the ocean after conservation workers and residents helped to refloat them by lifting them on sheets.

Four of the pilot whales died, New Zealand’s conservation agency said.