About 50 pilot whales were found stranded among rocks on the rugged Ngawi coastline near Cape Palliser, at the southern tip of New Zealand’s North Island, after coming ashore overnight. By Thursday afternoon the Department of Conservation had confirmed two pods, with roughly 20 animals on the beach in the first, four still alive and two refloated on the high tide.
Rescuers and marine medics from Project Jonah worked alongside DOC staff, local iwi and Ngawi volunteers to keep the surviving whales wet and cool. Most of the pod died despite those efforts, and by Thursday evening the last four survivors, including the two that had been refloated, were dead.
Residents counted close to 50 whales, DOC initially confirmed about 20, and rescuers warned that some carcasses had already been swept out to sea, complicating the search along several kilometres of rocky coast.
Pilot whales are highly social and vulnerable to mass strandings, which can trap entire pods in shallow coastal water. DOC said the area had not recorded a mass stranding since the 1990s. The cause of this one has not been established.