Nearly 500 whales die after being stranded on two New Zealand beaches

WELLINGTON, 12 Oct. (DPA/EP) -

The New Zealand authorities have confirmed this Wednesday the death of 477 pilot whales after being stranded on the shore of two islands in the South Pacific, a fact that they have described as one of the largest disasters of this type in the country's history.

The strandings have occurred in the remote group of the Chatham Islands, about 840 kilometers from the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand, according to the DPA agency.

On Saturday, 232 whales were stranded on the main island, while another 245 remained on shore on Monday on Pitt Island, 40 kilometers further north.

Environmental charity Project Jonah has called the strandings one of the largest such disasters in New Zealand's history.

"While we experience large mass strandings on Farewell Spit (at the top of the South Island), these events average 70 to 80 whales," a spokesperson for the charity said.

The rescue teams of the New Zealand Government have not tried to refloat the stranded animals due to the risk of shark attacks on both people and whales. The surviving whales have been euthanized to spare them further suffering, a marine technical adviser to the New Zealand Department of Conservation told a news conference.

Strandings are a common phenomenon in the Chatham Islands, where in 1918 more than 1,000 whales died in a single stranding.

"It's something that has happened throughout history and that scientists are trying to understand. We know that the close social bonds of the pilot whale herd, in particular, are one of the reasons why such a large number of these animals beach together," a spokesperson for the JONAS project told DPA.