43 whales dead | Northland News | Local News in Northland

More than 40 whales are dead after a mass stranding on a remote Northland beach.

But a small army of volunteers - who worked through the night in a bid to stop the toll rising any higher - were hoping to refloat 15 survivors this morning after trucking them to the other side of Doubtless Bay's Karikari Peninsula.

An entire pod of 58 pilot whales is thought to have become stranded on Karikari Beach, a long sweep of silica sand on the northern side of the peninsula, some time on Thursday night.

The Department of Conservation's Kaitaia office was alerted by a member of the public about 10.30am yesterday.

By then 43 whales, from young calves to fully-grown adults six metres long, were dead.

Ironically, they are thought to have died by drowning. When whales are ashore they struggle to stay upright; once on their side the surf and rising tide drives water into their blowholes.

About 40 DoC staff and trained volunteers from Far North Whale Rescue and Project Jonah, as well as a large number of local people, were battered by heavy rain and high winds as they tried to help the 15 survivors.

Ten whales were pulled to safety above the high-water mark, where children kept them cool with sheets and buckets of water. The remaining whales were too big to be moved and had to be kept upright in the surf by groups of wetsuit-clad volunteers.

Initially it was hoped the survivors could be turned to face out to sea, held for half an hour so they could re-orientate themselves, and then be released at high tide around 4.30pm.

However, conditions at Karikari Beach proved too harsh.

Around 5pm a decision was made to try to refloat them on the sheltered side of the peninsula this morning.

DoC biodiversity manager Patrick Whaley said the priority last night was to stabilise the whales and move them to safety with "whatever the hell we can" before the next high tide, about 5am today. A digger arrived at nightfall yesterday to lift the biggest whales, while Project Jonah was bringing in a lifting frame. Lights and generators were set up so work could continue.

A skeleton crew would stay with the whales overnight and at first light they would be lifted onto a flatbed truck and taken about 1km to Maitai Bay, where Mr Whaley said the chances of refloating them successfully were much higher.

Among those trying to save the whales yesterday was Tutukaka orca expert Ingrid Visser - and an entire BBC film crew making a documentary about her.

Director Mark Woodward was stunned by what he saw yesterday, barely a week after arriving in New Zealand. His crew had spent the day doing "a bit of filming, a bit of pitching in".

"Filming is very secondary when you see something like this. It's a terrible scene when you first walk over those dunes and see it."

Among the many children helping out was Lucy Hale from Houhora. The 9-year-old Project Jonah volunteer was unfazed by seeing the dead and dying whales around her.

"You've got to keep them wet and keep talking to them, telling them it's going to be okay," she said. One of the first helpers to arrive was stonemason Isaiah Inch, from Coopers Beach, who was alerted by a text from a friend.

"It's pretty sad really, seeing all these animals dying. We'll try to save the ones we can."

Even with a wetsuit he was cold after being in the water all day, "but you've got to do what you've got to do". Brad Windust, of Haruru Falls, had named the whale he was trying to keep upright Pono, or Faith.

"You feel pretty helpless. But it's cool to see so many families here, all pitching in to help."

Karikari Beach was the scene of another mass stranding on October 8, 1997. On that occasion 101 whales ran aground and more than 50 died.

Mr Whaley said the beach was known as a "whale trap". The shallow water and gently sloping bottom were thought to confuse the whale's in-built sonar.

Once one pilot whale stranded, perhaps because it was sick, the others would not want to leave - and they could not swim backwards to get off a beach.

Another theory for the increasing numbers of strandings was that humans had decimated fish stocks to the point where whales were starving.

Pictures: P20