An effort to save dozens of whales from certain death is being hailed as “incredible” by New Zealand conservationists. More than 30 stranded pilot whales were reportedly rescued on Sunday, Nov. 24, by residents and conservation workers in New Zealand.
“We’ve had, you know, a really awesome response from the community,” Dave Milner, who works with the resource management unit, which helped with the rescue, said. “Thousands of people have come down to help, and you know, it was great to see their unity, you know, for the same purpose.”
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Volunteers used sheets to lift the whales back into the water off of the coast of northern New Zealand.
“So, there were a lot of people in the water, obviously, you know, safety is a real priority here and so Project Jonah has got a whole team of trained, you know, volunteers who support events like these,” Joel Lauterbach, a spokesperson for the New Zealand Department of Conservation, said. “And they’re trained to be in the water, they’re trained to be around these amazing animals and basically making a lot of noise and really encouraging them back out by splashing, and yeah, and refloating as well.”
Despite the mass effort, four whales died, including three adults and one calf.
Conservationists watched on Monday, Nov. 25, to make sure there were no cases of restranding.
New Zealand is a hotspot for whales swimming ashore. The country recorded more than 5,000 whale strandings since 1840, according to New Zealand’s Department of Conservation.
The largest whale stranding occurred in 1918 when around 1,000 whales became beached.
It’s unclear how or why the strandings happen so often, but biologists believe the island nation’s geography plays a role.
New Zealand’s north and south islands are home to extended coastlines with sloped beaches and can sometimes confuse whales, which rely on echolocation to navigate.
