Pilot whales - Picture by: Clark Anderson

Dozens of whales are facing death, or may already be dead, following a mass beaching in New Zealand.

Somewhere in the vicinity of 60 pilot whales may have met their demise in a remote New Zealand bay, after having beached, and the wild weather has been hindering efforts to get them back out to sea.

A pod of around 80 whales was discovered beached at Spirits Bay, which is situated 200 miles northwest of Auckland, and this is the second such beaching in the past couple of months.

While there were 25 of the whales declared dead on the scene, the Department of Conservation rallied the troops, and managed to get 100 volunteers to aid in saving the rest of the poor creatures.

However, Carolyn Smith, director of the Department of Conservation, has commented that only 24 of the whales is still hanging in there as of Thursday in the morning, however getting an exact number of losses will be hard, given that some of the dead bodies have made their way back to the sea.

She also commented that the heavy rains and the high sea levels were making the job of helping the animals back to the ocean nigh on impossible, and the department is considering calling in trucks to help move them to a more sheltered beach, almost an hour’s drive away.

It’s good to see that someone is willing to put their own comfort aside, it’s freezing out there, and try and help save the whales.