Half of a pod of sixty-five pilot whales stranded on Farewell Spit in Golden Bay have died.
The surviving 34 are stuck in shallow water, between two and three kilometres offshore.
Department of Conservation (DOC) Golden Bay area manager John Mason said there was nothing that could be done for them, other than to hope they manage to swim away on the next high tide.
"They're in a very remote location and they're in a very dangerous location to try and rescue them because to rescue a whale you have to stay with it until it can swim and to do that the water level is usually between your waste and your chest.
Once you've let the whale go you then have to head back to the beach yourself, which in this case would be two to three kilometres away, so we don't rescue them in those situations.