A group of environmentalists in New Zealand said on Saturday that 215 pilot whales died after being stranded on a beach in the Chatam Islands, in the South Pacific.
“[…] While we always want the surviving whales to be resurfaced, that was not an option in this case.”
According to the same group, most whales have already been found dead and the rest were eventually slaughtered to “prevent further suffering”.
The mammals are found in a difficult-to-access area, in the northwestern part of the Chatam Islands, where fewer than 800 people live.
In an email response to the EFE agency, Brian McDonald, the Department of Conservation’s communications adviser, stated that the decision to proceed with the slaughter of the whales was also linked to the risk of shark attack, “both for people as well as for the whales themselves”.
These whales and other marine mammals often beach off the coast of South Australia and New Zealand.
For the experts, consulted by the Spanish agency, this can happen due to diseases, navigation errors, tide changes, extreme weather conditions or chasing predators.
Source: DN
