Stewart Island beach becomes mass whale grave

Rescuers last night saved 39 pilot whales after scores died in a mass beaching on Stewart Island.

Weary volunteers shepherded the strongest survivors of the 159-whale pod back to sea on the high tide after 7pm. By 10pm the whales were about 4km offshore.

Department of Conservation area manager Greg Lind told the Herald many of the survivors were struggling after a day of direct sunlight.

"Some are barely alive ... You can see the huge blisters on their bodies from the sun.

"We may have saved as many as we could, and everyone can be proud of that."

Boaties herding the whales offshore reported the pod moving slowly and quietly away from the beach.

Mr Lind said: "The survivors have joined a separate pod which is really good, because the pod was probably coming to protect them. The pod must have heard the survivor's distressed calls and came to the rescue."

In an attempt to monitor the whales' movements, ribbons were tied to their tails so DoC staff could tell if any returned.

"The workers are feeling really good about themselves and we're pretty confident that the whales will continue out to sea, but we'll feel more confident tomorrow," Mr Lind said last night.

The whales first swam on to a deserted sandy beach called The Neck in Paterson's Inlet on Tuesday night, but were not found until yesterday afternoon.

Half the whales were dead when rescuers arrived. Their carcasses are likely be left to rot naturally at the beach.

Mr Lind said his team of DoC staff had been joined by locals and holidaymakers at the beach, which is about 5km from the only settlement of Oban but only accessible by sea or air.



One rescuer, Rosa Volz, of Wellington, said she did not hesitate to respond when the call for help went out. "Right now, the most important thing for me is that this whale lives," she said.

It was the first mass stranding attended by DoC's Brian Murphy, who felt amazement and horror.

"It's a fairly daunting task - you look at this and think, 'What the hell can we do?' They're so bloody helpless."

Mr Murphy said there was "something about whales".

"They are an intelligent creature but we don't know a lot about them.".

It is the third stranding Stewart Islanders have dealt with in just over four years - the others were at Maori Beach in 2000 and the worst at Doughboy Bay in 1998, when 360 died.

Some islanders yesterday recalled beachings had happened around the area at least four times in the past 40 years.

Pilot whales can grow up to 5m long and weigh as much as three tonnes.

New Zealand has one of the world's highest rates of whale strandings, which are thought to occur when the creatures becomedisoriented or when a dominantwhale leads others ashore.

But the strandings are not clearly understood by scientists, who believe illness may also play a role.

Other notable strandings around the country include the 1997 stranding of 101 pilot whales at Karikari Bay, at the northern tip of Doubtless Bay.

In Golden Bay 348 whales beached in the summer of 1989. Most of them were saved.

Herald feature: Environment