50 whales saved, 15 die as port rescue pays off

BY TINA LAW

The survivors in a pod of about 50 whales stranded in a bay near Christchurch yesterday appear to have made it safely back to sea, with those monitoring the situation reporting no sign of them this morning.

Residents of a tiny Banks Peninsula settlement saved a pod of whales beached in a mass stranding.

Port Levy residents and holidaymakers worked in cold seas and calf-high mud for four hours yesterday to refloat the whales after the village woke to find over 60 pilot whales had run aground on the foreshore.

Fifteen females and calves died, but the rescuers managed to refloat and save about 50 whales.

"It did look pretty hopeless. Luckily the tide was coming in. We pushed, pulled, lifted and squeezed and got them out," said Richard Barnett, a farmer and Port Levy resident for 45 years.

Word of the stranding spread quickly throughout the tiny Banks Peninsula settlement and about 80 people came down to the beach yesterday from 7.30am.

"There were children. Everyone was out there doing their bit. Everyone who lives here or were on holiday here were out there as well."

Crusaders rugby team assistant coach Mark Hammett, holidaying at a family bach, was one of the first on the scene.

The whales presented an "eerie" sight, he said.

Some thrashed about and some lay still while the calves, "the baby ones", were crying and yelling for help.

"It sounded like they were scared."

It was "amazing" to see the community rally – keeping the whales cool and upright and keeping their blowholes clear.

Barnett said the pod first entered the bay on Saturday night.

Resident Victoria Howden said the sight of the bay full of whales was "spectacular".

"They looked like they were on a feeding frenzy. Then they got a bit stupid and came in a bit close."

About 8pm five whales became stranded on a sand bar.

Barnett and three others were able to refloat them about 11pm.

"The rest of them were thrashing around in the shallows but they managed to get themselves back out."

Barnett said it was tragic to wake up yesterday to see the entire pod of over 60 whales beached in the bay.

Harvey Taylor, who has lived in Port Levy for 20 years, said everybody just seemed to do the right thing.

There were two or three people per whale, bathing them in water until the high tide returned and they were able to attempt to refloat the creatures.

Annabel Barnett, 16, said it was satisfying to be able to save most of the whales. "Some people got quite attached to their whale," she said.

Mark Simpson of Project Jonah, a marine mammal rescue organisation which had 15 volunteers at the stranding, praised the efforts of the locals.

The whales were successfully led back out to sea around 11am, helped by some boats.

A Department of Conservation boat herded the whales out to the Lyttelton Heads.

Simpson said it was difficult to know exactly what attracted the whales into the bay, but they were probably chasing fish or squid.

The bay was shallow and its sandy bottom meant the whales' sonar did not work well.

Pilot whale strandings were a regular occurrence in New Zealand and the one in Port Levy was the third in the country this year. However, it was uncommon for Banks Peninsula, he said.

There have been a couple of single strandings in recent years but not pods. Two whales were already buried at Port Levy from previous strandings.

It was not known why the 15 females and calves died, but marine specialist Emma Beatson, of the Auckland University of Technology, would do an autopsy on the whales today.

Simpson said whales often became stressed when in the shallows. They had a thick layer of blubber and needed to be in deep water to keep cool.

"They will literally cook from the inside out."

Kaumatua Charlie Crofts said he blessed the dead whales yesterday and they would be buried on the beach after the autopsy.

- © Fairfax NZ News