Hundreds of pilot whales stranded on remote island off the east coast of New Zealand

Pitt Island is the second-largest island in the Chatham archipelago. This is about 500 miles east of the country's mainland. Nearly 250 pilot whales are stranded on this remote island off the east coast of New Zealand. It has happened within a few days of each other. During the weekend, most of the whales died while the remaining had to be put down since there was little chance of their survival. An official of Project Jonah revealed to a section of the media that two mass stranding within a few days was "not unheard of." However, the remoteness of the islands made things difficult to rescue them. Usually such cases involve massive community effort with hundreds of people. Unfortunately, the population of Pitt Island is only 40 people. It was totally inadequate to tend to such a number of whales. Hundreds of pilot whales stranded off remote islands in New Zealand.

Mass whale stranding is not new to the Chathams. The largest was in 1918, when an estimated 1,000 whales died. Later in 2000, more than 100 whales and dolphins died after being stranded on the islands. The reasons for such behavior are not known but experts do not rule out possibilities of links to environmental factors.in some parts of the world the water is too shallow for whales to navigate. This is because their echo-location ability is designed for deep water. Moreover, mass stranding are more common among highly social species. These include pilot whales. Their herding instinct means the group can move together even if one member is sick or compromised. At times, these result in their stranding. Incidentally, these bonds can be strong. Therefore, the sick whales have to be revived before the healthy ones are re-floated. In case that does not happen, the healthy whales could hear the sick ones calling and re-beach themselves to be together.

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