28 Trapped Whales in New Zealand, Refloated in An Attempt to Rescue Them

On Monday, rescuers raced to rescue 49 long-finned pilot whales that were trapped in the notorious New Zealand bay of Farewell Spit, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) north of the South Island tourist town of Nelson. Wildlife officials said that the area is known for mass strandings, Phys.org reported.

Sadly, the Department of Conservation (DOC) said that some of the whales did not survive by mid-afternoon even with 60 people working together to keep the survivors alive to refloat them at high tide.

Refloating Rescued Whales for the Second Time

Volunteers were able to refloat some of the trapped whales at night during the high tide, but sometime overnight they beached themselves again. They had to refloat the whales again the next day.

A recent report from Phys.org said that volunteers refloated 28 whales again after refloating them for the second time in two days.

According to Louisa Hawkes, a spokesperson for the nonprofit whale rescue group Project Jonah, they hope that the whales would not beach themselves again this time after going much deeper in the ocean than the first attempt on Monday.

"They've gone much further out than yesterday," she said. "We're cautiously optimistic they won't come back."

She added that it is fairly common for pilot whales to beach themselves again after being rescued before finally swimming away again.

According to a previous report from Science Times, whales sometimes beached themselves when one or two wonder away fro the pod and then end up following them. These mammals indeed have close bonds with each other.

About 200 volunteers helped in the efforts of rescuing the whales to keep them healthy and calm while they are beached at the coast of Farewell Spit in New Zealand.

Project Jonah and the Department of Conservation rangers led the efforts of rescuing the whales and guided volunteers to drench the whales with buckets of water and keep them upright to make sure the whales do not put too much pressure on their fins.

ALSO READ: Around 270 Stranded Whales Continue to be Rescued in a Mass Beaching

Keeping the Whales Away From the Shore

The volunteers then formed human chains in the water to try to stop the whales from swimming back to the island after being refloated. Hawkes said that they have used an inflatable pontoon to help one whale swim into the deeper sea in hopes that it would call its pod mates and follow.

After ensuring that the whales have swum deeper, boats replaced the humans in forming a barrier to the shore. The Farewell Spit is sometimes described as the whale trap because of its gently sloping beaches that make it difficult for whales to navigate away from once they were trapped, ABC News reported.

Like what happened four years ago when 650 pilot whales beached themselves in the same location. There were two separate mass strandings in the area wherein 350 of the whales died and 300 were saved.