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More than 30 pilot whales that washed up on a beach in New Zealand have been safely returned to the ocean. Conservation workers and residents helped to refloat the whales by lifting them onto ...
New Zealand’s Indigenous people consider whales a taonga — a sacred treasure — of cultural significance. New Zealand has recorded more than 5,000 whale strandings since 1840. The largest pilot whale stranding was of an estimated 1,000 whales at the Chatham Islands in 1918, according to the Department of Conservation.
New Zealand’s Indigenous people consider whales a taonga — a sacred treasure — of cultural significance. New Zealand has recorded more than 5,000 whale strandings since 1840. The largest pilot whale stranding was of an estimated 1,000 whales at the Chatham Islands in 1918, according to the Department of Conservation.
Around 300 pilot whales were stranded at Stanley, Tasmania. [ 37 ] [ 38 ] [ 39 ] The exact number of deaths or whales involved is unclear, with one newspaper reporting at least 245 confirmed deaths, [ 40 ] while another newspaper reported in 1936 that 70 whales escaped during high tide the day after the stranding.
The long-finned pilot whale has traditionally been hunted by "driving", which involves many hunters and boats gathering in a semicircle behind a pod of whales close to shore, and slowly driving them towards a bay, where they become stranded and are then slaughtered. This practice was common in both the 19th and 20th centuries.
A dramatic operation to save the lives of more than 100 pilot whales ended in partial success on Thursday after wildlife officials managed to return most of the stranded animals to sea.
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Though mass strandings of this species are most common in New Zealand, pilot whales have beached themselves in many other countries in places such as northern Europe, the Atlantic coast of North America, South America, and southern parts of Africa. Over 600 pilot whales were involved in a stranding at Farewell Spit, New Zealand on February 9, 2017.