Not one of the stranded whales might be refloated and all both died naturally or have been euthanised in a “heartbreaking” loss, mentioned Daren Grover, the final supervisor of Challenge Jonah, a nonprofit group which helps rescue whales.

The whales beached themselves on the Chatham Islands, that are residence to about 600 individuals and situated about 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of New Zealand’s foremost islands.

The Division of Conservation mentioned 232 whales stranded themselves Friday at Tupuangi Seashore and one other 245 at Waihere Bay on Monday.

The deaths come two weeks after about 200 pilot whales died in Australia after stranding themselves on a distant Tasmanian seashore.

A string of lifeless pilot whales line the seashore at Tupuangi Seashore, Chatham Islands, in New Zealand’s Chatham Archipelago, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022. (AP)

“These occasions are robust, difficult conditions,” the Division of Conservation wrote in a Fb publish. “Though they’re pure occurrences, they’re nonetheless unhappy and troublesome for these serving to.” Grover mentioned the distant location and presence of sharks within the surrounding waters meant they couldn’t mobilize volunteers to attempt to refloat the whales as they’ve in previous stranding occasions.

“We don’t actively refloat whales on the Chatham Islands as a result of threat of shark assault to people and the whales themselves, so euthanasia was the kindest choice,” mentioned Dave Lundquist, a technical marine advisor for the conservation division.

Mass strandings of pilot whales are fairly widespread in New Zealand, particularly in the course of the summer time months. Scientists don’t know precisely what causes the whales to strand, though it seems their location techniques can get confused by gently sloping sandy seashores.

Grover mentioned there’s quite a lot of meals for the whales across the Chatham Islands, and as they swim nearer to land, they might shortly discover themselves going from very deep to shallow water.

“They depend on their echolocation and but it doesn’t inform them that they’re working out of water,” Grover mentioned. “They arrive nearer and nearer to shore and grow to be disoriented. The tide can then drop from under them and earlier than they understand it, they’re stranded on the seashore.” Due to the distant location of the seashores, the whale carcasses received’t be buried or towed out to sea, as is usually the case, however as an alternative will likely be left to decompose, Grover mentioned.

“Nature is a good recycler and all of the vitality saved throughout the our bodies of all of the whales will likely be returned to nature fairly shortly,” he mentioned.