stay at the beach at the time due to incoming tide, and therefore arrived before sunrise the following morning. He noted that while rescuers have been providing care for the whales, the animals have been out of water for some time. “While this event is unfortunate, whale strandings are a natural phenomenon,” he told the AFP news.
According to local whale rescue group Project Jonah, their condition is being closely being monitored by its medics, together with the Department of Conservation. “This is a stressful time for the whales after their time spent stranded yesterday and this morning, so close monitoring of their condition and responses in the water is key,” the group wrote on Twitter.
Farewell Spit, is a 26-kilometer stretch of sand where whale strandings have been frequent. The largest was in February 2017, when almost 700 of the aquatic mammals were beached, of which more than 300 died. Scientists have been unable to determine why the beach is so deadly. While several theories have been proposed in this regard, one of the most popular is that the narrow sand spit creates a shallow seabed in the bay, which interferes with the sonar navigation systems of the whales.
