In a race against the clock, volunteers in New Zealand's famous Golden Bay are attempting to save the near 200 pilot whales that beached themselves early Friday morning, Feb. 13. In what researchers say is the largest beaching event in over a decade, the pod of pilot whales became trapped on a sandbar known as the "Farewell Spit", which is a common trap for migrating whales.
Not infrequent to the area, local conservationists and volunteer organizations like Project Jonah are prepared for events of massive beachings. However, the task of "refloating" a whale is quite massive and timely, as the pod can die of dehydration or severe sunburn if left exposed for too long. Currently 25 of the 198 pilot whales have died, and conservationists fear that more may too if they are not able to get them back into deeper waters soon.
"Re-floating stranded whales is a difficult and potentially dangerous job" New Zealand Department of Conservation spokesman, Andrew Lamason says. "Community group Project Jonah has 140 volunteers in the Golden Bay area who are trained to do this, and we're working alongside them."
As of now, roughly half of the pod were able to move to deeper waters without help, however, the rest are relying on volunteers to help them back. Cetaceans, and members of the the dolphin family, pilot whales (Globicephala melas) can weigh up to three tons which makes moving them back out to sea a difficult feat for volunteers. To refloat the whales conservationists and project volunteers must rely heavily on high tides to push the whales back to deeper waters. And if they fail to move fast enough, the whales may be left stranded until the high tide returns the next day.
Spokespersons and volunteers with Project Jonah say that they hope to get all of the whales back out to sea today. But even if they manage to get all of the surviving pilot whales out to deeper waters, the battle may still not be done. Conservationists says that the pod may return even once they're in the clear.
"We've had plenty of times in the past where the pods have gone out to sea and turned around and come back again" Lamason says. "We're preparing for a big few days."
