125 pilot whales die on NZ beaches, 43 saved

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Some 125 pilot whales died in New Zealand after stranding on beaches over the weekend — but vacationers and conservation workers managed to coax 43 others back out to sea.

Rescuers monitored the survivors as they swam away from Colville Beach on North Island's Coromandel peninsula, and by Monday morning they were reported well out to sea.

Department of Conservation workers and hundreds of volunteers helped re-float the 43 whales at high tide. The volunteers covered the stranded mammals in sheets and kept them wet through the day.

"Some 63 pilot whales stranded ... but it looks pretty good, we've got 43 live ones," Department of Conservation ranger Steve Bolten said as the pod swam out to sea.

Bolten said one of the whales may have been sick, or their sonar may have led them into the shallow harbor and they couldn't find their way out again.

Meanwhile on South Island, 105 long-finned pilot whales that stranded died Saturday, conservation officials said Monday.

Golden Bay biodiversity program manager Hans Stoffregen said they were discovered by a tourist plane pilot and only 30 were alive when conservation workers arrived.

"They were in bad shape. By the time we got there two-thirds of them had already died. We had to euthanize the rest," he said.

The whales had been out of the water for a long time.

"It has been quite hot and they were very distressed. You could see the pain and suffering in their eyes," he was quoted telling the Southland Times newspaper

Because the site is part of a nature reserve, the 105 whale carcasses were left to decompose where they stranded, Stoffregen said.

Large numbers of whales become stranded on New Zealand's beaches each summer as they pass by on their way to breeding grounds from Antarctic waters. Scientists so far have been unable to explain why whales become stranded.

Source

Whale saves diver

Apparently a Beluga whale rescued a diver in the whale's tank in China. Here's the story. It's very interesting to wonder whether this was just blind instinct? Or did the whale know exactly what it was doing? Perhaps it's just instinct for a marine mammal to recognize the signs of another mammal in distress. Perhaps it's a maternal instinct (similar to a baby newborn whale that needs help to ascend for its first breath). But perhaps, just perhaps, the whale knew that the human needed help, and it decided to act just because it wanted to. Who knows?

Why is this important to us? Well, first, it's just interesting. Second, it's just shows another facet of the human-animal bond. That's why our pets (read: 'family members with fur') mean so much to us. They respond to us on so many different levels. It's not just about the food and shelter, they really pay attention to us, and we pay attention to them. It may not be a life saving event, but every day our pets show us some little interaction that makes us think there is a deeper connection. Some little event that shows us they understand more than we think they should. Are we fooling ourselves? Who knows?

Then that just leaves the question as to why anyone would want to have a breath-holding contest in arctic temperature water...