Hundreds of volunteers are racing to rescue hundreds of pilot whales that have beached themselves on the shallows at Farewell Spit. The narrow sand spit, located on the north-western coast of the South Island of New Zealand is a known black spot for whale strandings. NBC News reports: About three-quarters of the whales had already died by the time they were discovered Friday morning at a place called Farewell Spit on South Island. The incident is being called one of the worst whale beachings in New Zealand’s history. An official from New Zealand’s Department of Conservation said about 300 volunteers had joined conservation workers on the beach. She said rescuers had re-floated the whales at high tide and had formed the human chain to try to prevent them swimming back ashore. ‘It’s the worst whale stranding we have ever seen’ https://t.co/c2DbjOleZv pic.twitter.com/yJIEkLX3hW — nzherald (@nzherald) 10 February 2017 Earlier, as they waited for the tide to come in, volunteers had tried to keep the whales damp and cool by covering them with blankets and dousing them with buckets of water. Volunteer rescue group Project Jonah said 416 whales were stranded, and 75 percent of them had died by the time [...]
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