Second pod of whales stranded at Golden Bay

A second pod of whales has stranded in Golden Bay.

This comes after more pilot whales from the initial pod of 30 died overnight after restranding at Golden Bay, near Tomatea Point.

Marine mammal protection charity Project Jonah said a pod of 11 was now stranded at Taupata Point.

They were noticed near the low tide mark and then subsequently stranded. Because of their location they were now largely refloated, but were being closely monitored.

“At least one individual from that group is high up the beach waiting for more water and will be pontooned.”

The initial larger pod were swimming around 5pm Monday in shallow waters, said DOC Acting Operations Manager Golden Bay, Andrew Lamason.

The smaller pod who first stranded on Monday swam briefly, but have since re-stranded in roughly the same area near Taupata Point

“It has been a huge effort from DOC staff from across the region, Project Jonah volunteers, Massey University experts, and community volunteers,” said Lamason.

Lamason said rescuers will be out caring for the whales until late Monday evening, and will return at first light to re-assess the situation.

The initial pod would soon have water around them too, the charity said just before 1pm on Monday. There was also a single whale at Patons Rock, which has since swum away.

“Welfare assessments are ongoing as the state of the whales and environmental conditions change through the day.”

This comes after volunteers spent four hours in shoulder deep water with the surviving whales on Sunday.

“Despite the whales having energy after being stranded overnight they were lacking initiative and direction within the pod,” Project Jonah said.

“It’s possible that one of the whales that passed away overnight was the matriarch and the pod are now without a leader.

“With strong onshore breezes, multiple sandbars and swell working against us, we managed to move the whales over 3km out.

“Unfortunately there was no inclination to swim off and the pod have restranded.”

General manager Daren Grover said a few more whales died overnight on Sunday, but most of the pod was alive and strong.

The tide had pulled them right back on the sand and into the high tide line at Pakawau Beach on Monday morning.

Grover said they were setting up for another day with the whales, with plans to attempt another refloat in the afternoon.

He said there was currently an on-shore wind, but the “tricky” weather conditions were forecast to improve later in the day.

The rescue effort followed the death of three pilot whales overnight on Saturday after they briefly refloated before stranding again.

Acting operations manager Golden Bay Andrew Lamason said the whales had restranded very high on the beach on Monday, and a couple more had died overnight.

“The whales are near Pakawau Inlet and they are on rocks now, some are up amongst the driftwood.

“The tides are reducing in height which makes re-floating even more challenging.”

“We are doing a health and welfare assessment on the whales with support from Massey University experts. We will then make decisions about what the next best course of action is.”

He said the whales were floating on Sunday evening, and the volunteers had attempted to keep them from re-stranding.

“The whales don’t seem very enthusiastic about swimming to deeper water.

“The conditions are terrible, there is a very strong south-east wind blowing onshore at the stranding site.

“People are getting cold and exhausted. The whales are only in about a metre of water,” he said.

“The whales seem to be getting a bit agitated and if they do re-strand, we will make an assessment of their well-being at first light tomorrow. We are trying to manage the welfare of both whales and the people supporting them.”

The Department of Conservation was first called about a pod of whales swimming close to the shore near Pakawau, at the northern tip of the South Island, on Saturday afternoon.

Lamason earlier said a ranger who lived nearby was tracking the pod, which moved north and stranded near Taupata Stream.

He said 30 whales had stranded, and another four were swimming nearby.

They were pilot whales and are a range of ages and sizes.

By Warren Gamble, Nelson Mail

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